電子整合是指相鄰價值鏈的角色間,透過專屬的電腦和通訊系統的採用而達成準垂直整合的一種特定型態。為了找出連鎖加盟體系之電子整合決定因素,本研究嘗試從交易成本理論與資源依賴理論觀點出發,從交易成本理論導出企業程序資產專質性、信賴度、交易專屬投資等變數;從資源依賴理論導出淨依賴性與權力運用等變數。經過訪談便利商店連鎖加盟體系的總部及授權和自願加盟店,並運用個案分析,發現企業程序資產專質性、交易專屬投資、加盟店的淨依賴性和電子整合程度成正比;總部的權力運用則大致表現出正向關係,但並不夠顯著;至於信賴度則偏高且與電子整合程度不完全成正比。如果從加盟制度之類別,授權加盟及自願加盟來分析,前述三項與電子整合程度仍成正比;而總部的權力運用可明顯看出和電子整合程度有正向關係;至於信賴度之差異則是不明顯。另外,授權加盟的電子整合程度比自願加盟高,可能表示授權加盟較能順利引進資訊科技,在面對未來連鎖加盟可能的蓬勃發展,這一點可供加盟體系業者作參考。
Electronic integration stands for a form of vertical quasi-integration achieved through the deployment of a proprietary interorganizational system, which is considered as a cheaper way to gain integration advantage than conventional vertical integration. This paper draws on both transaction cost theory and resource dependency theory to obtain the determinants of electronic integration in franchise systems, and then develop a model of five determinants: business process asset specificity, trust, transaction specific investment, net dependency, exercised power. The model was then tested by case studies which include four franchisors and ten franchisees in convenience store chains. The results indicated that business process asset specificity, transaction specific investment and net dependency have positive correlation with the degree of electronic integration; though trust and exercised power did not show strong correlation with the degree of electronic integration when individual franchise systems were compared. And among the five variables tested only trust didn't present significant impact upon electronic integration when franchise systems were classified as franchise chain and voluntary chain.