As emphasized, the selection of particular theories chosen to portray the evolution of international franchising theory is necessarily selective. Given that high citations are one criterion, it is possible that some or most of these theories would also have been selected by another academic conducting the same task. The personal preferences of the author remain, nonetheless.
Both papers in Phase 1 provide a powerful foundation for theory of international franchising. In particular, the Eroglu (1992) paper is important because it does seem to be the first comprehensive and full-fledged conceptual model of international franchising. It has become a well-justified classic, seminal article in this domain of the franchising literature.