This paper addresses franchising development in Vietnam, a developing country. It considers
strategies to bridge the gap between Vietnamese franchise practice and franchising best
practice. It proposes that in Vietnam’s current state of development, the product and
trade name model may be the appropriate starting point with a move to the business
format model only when, and in places where, the socio-cultural, commercial, and
economic factors and the legal environment can accommodate more sophisticated
business format franchise arrangements.