Doctoral student Swati Panda received the 2019 International Society of Franchising (ISoF) Best Graduate Student Award for her publication, “Governance Structure and Franchisee Opportunism in an Emerging Market.”

Honored at the 33^rd annual International Society of Franchising Conference held in Austria this past June, Panda’s award-winning paper was co-authored by Satyendra Pandey and UNT professors Audhesh Paswan and Lou Pelton. The research analyzed franchise satisfaction levels when taking the influence of governance mechanisms and feelings of franchise solidarity into account, in an emerging market.

This is not the first time Panda has been recognized for her influential work. She also earned the ISoF Best Graduate Student Award in 2017 for her research on how franchisers attracts potential franchisees.

"Swati's first award winning paper from 2017 has already been published in Industrial Marketing Management, a top ranked publication in business-to-business marketing," said UNT academic associate dean Audhesh Paswan. "I am certain that this paper will also go to a top journal. Such achievements from our doctoral students enhance the prestige of our doctoral program."  

The annual ISoF Conference is the premier conference for researchers in franchising and Panda’s internationally-recognized contributions speak volumes of the quality research and academia that UNT puts forth.