Francine Lafontaine's areas of interest are in the field of Industrial Organization, with a special focus on vertical relationships, including franchising and other forms of inter-firm contracting, and related antitrust issues. Her research is mostly concerned with the application of advances in contract theory to the analysis of organizational issues in the vertical chain, especially into distribution. She also considers the effect of contracting practices on firm performance, as well as issues surrounding business creation and survival in retail and small-scale service industries more generally.