The 17th annual International Society of Franchising (ISoF) Conference, Building International Bridges to Success, was held February 15 and 16, 2003, at the Marriott Riverwalk in San Antonio, Texas. Forty (40) researchers attended the conference including 16 from the U.S.; five from France, four from the U.K., three from Canada, two from Finland and one from Spain.

Dr. Frank Wadsworth, Indiana University Southeast, and Dr. Douglas Haines, University of Idaho, served as program co-chairs, and Cheryl R. Babcock, CFE from Nova Southeastern University served as arrangements chair and is the executive director of the ISoF.

Two best paper awards were presented at the ISoF conference. The ISoF panel of judges presented their Best Paper Award to co-authors James A. Brickley, Ph.D., Sanjog Misra, Ph.D., and R. Lawrence Van Horn, Ph.D., of the University of Rochester for their paper, Contract Duration: Evidence From Franchise Contracts.

On behalf of the IFA Educational Foundation panel of judges, their Director of Research, Kathryn Morgan, presented The Arthur Karp Research Award for "Best Applied Paper" and a cash prize to Audhesh Paswan, Ph.D., and C. Michael Wittmann, Ph.D., from the University of North Texas for the paper that they co-authored entitled Franchise Systems and Knowledge Management.