Executive insight: evaluating the market size for service franchising in emerging markets

Purpose – The purpose of this article is to propose a framework for analyzing the comparative economic market size for service franchisors in emerging markets using current and available data from the World Bank. Design/methodology/approach – Data is transformed through simple manipulations to derive information‐filled rankings of 20 popular emerging markets. Emerging markets constitute the largest and most dynamic markets for international franchisors. Findings – The findings show that Brazil, Russia, and Mexico outranked China and India as the markets with the largest economies for service franchising. Future research should enhance the economic analysis and measures developed in the article and use them in conjunction with other environmental, industry, and company variables to estimate the market potential and select the appropriate markets for entry. Practical implications – Attempting to estimate the market size of emerging markets is often only the first step in international market selection. Originality/value – This paper encourages managers to think beyond simple measures of market size when considering the attractiveness of franchising opportunities which hitherto has been under‐emphasized in the extant literature.