Entrepreneurial Attitudes: Comparing Independent Business’ Owners With Franchisees

Dr. João Bento Oliveira (), Patricia Peghini, Juliana Moro Bueno Mendonça and Dr. Andre Carlos Martins Menck
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Dr. João Bento Oliveira: Associate Professor , Department of Finance and Entrepreneurship, Universidade Federal de Uberlândia, Brazil,
Patricia Peghini: Assistant Professor, Universidade Federal do Triângulo Mineiro, Brazil
Juliana Moro Bueno Mendonça: Visiting Professor, Faculdade Santa Rita de Cássia, Brazil
Dr. Andre Carlos Martins Menck: Associate Professor of Marketing, Universidade Federal de Uberlândia, Brazil

International Journal of Business and Social Research, 2014, vol. 4, issue 3, 126-136

Abstract: The ability to identify opportunities is the force behind thousands of small and medium enterprises, contributing to the improvement of social and economic performance of a country. The choice between starting an independent business and becoming a franchisee seems to depend on different behaviors and attitudes of the entrepreneur. This research aims verify, based on entrepreneurial attitudinal characteristics and the theory of planned behavior, whether there are differences in the degree of entrepreneurial attitude of franchisees and independent business owners, especially in the food service industry. The quest to possibly finding different entrepreneurial attitudes originated from assumedly less entrepreneurial characteristics of the franchisee, such as greater risk-aversion and reduced innovativeness. As a theoretical basis, we dug into the concepts of entrepreneurship, entrepreneur and franchise, besides attitude and planned behavior. To data collect data we used the Instrument for Measuring Entrepreneurial Attitude (IMAE) proposed by Lopes and Souza Jr. (2005). The study was conducted with thirty occupants of the position of owner, main manager or co-owner of small and medium-sized food enterprises, in the city of Uberlândia, Brazil. Fifteen of them were franchisees and fifteen were independent business owners. Results indicated that, contrary to expectations, the entrepreneurial attitude of franchisees showed up higher. The most determinant factor in the entrepreneurial attitude differences observed in this study seems to be time in business.

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Entrepreneurial Attitudes; Franchising. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:mir:mirbus:v:4:y:2014:i:3:p:126-136

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