Reviews of the original publication:‘From this brief description it should be clear that Felstead's book is more than a valuable detailed study of a business phenomenon of which little is known, but is also a contribution which has theoretical relevance as well… the result of Felstead's dissection of franchise operation is to remove their mysteries. By the time he has finished them, the franchises turned out to be a rather novel and subtle configuration of corporate power. There are in fact, many similarities with these forms of organization and the new corporate forms now being developed by some of our, supposedly orthodox, major corporations.’-Stephen Ackroyd, The British Journal of Sociology, Vol. 46, No. 3