Mutual Franchise Success as a Result of Strategic Staffing Fit in Mobile Telecom Business: The Moderating Effects of Complementary Resources
Abbey Mutumba, Akisoferi Wesonga Masese, Simon Odera Sabano

Abstract
Background: Across the world, most businesses in emerging markets are theoretically and practically characterized by significant competition, price reductions, increased product and distribution innovations as they contribute to fast economic growth in their respective countries. The resource scarcity theory posits that mobile telecom businesses such as those in Uganda’s competitive mobile telecom sector choose to use the franchising strategy in order to counteract the limited staffing, financial, knowledge and other key resources limitations in their strategic directions. Study Purpose: This study aimed at understanding how strategic staffing fit leads to the needed mutual success among the respective franchise partners especially when moderated by complementary resources sharing. The unit of inquiry was a franchise business entity while the units of inquiry (respondents) were managers (on ground) and another key employee who has customer contact in the particular mobile telecom business. The Findings: The results revealed that strategic staffing fit is positively related to mutual franchise success at a high level of significance in the mobile telecom businesses (adjusted R²=0.082; F=10.251; β=0.302; p= 0.002) in Model 1. The Final Model (Model 3) where complementary resources was introduced and found to be positively affected (with β=0.626; p= 0.000) and strategic staffing fit (β=0.328; p= 0.009). So, complementary resources sharing significantly and positively moderates the relationship between strategic staffing fit and mutual franchise success in competitive mobile telecom business of developing countries like Uganda. Managerial Implications: The respective mobile telecom managers in a developing country like Uganda need to first evaluate the current and future co-existence of the fit and resources before any franchise contract engagement. It then becomes easier to achieve the needed mutual franchise success during the next franchise contract engagements between both business partners. This sustains the businesses’/sub-sector’s competitiveness hence the respective developing country’s faster economic growth and transformation through the franchising strategy.

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