6533b825fe1ef96bd1281d37

RESEARCH PRODUCT

An Ounce of Prevention Is Worth a Pound of Cure

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Abstract The paper examines franchise owners' satisfaction with their businesses. Job satisfaction, its antecedents and outcomes have been a popular topic in organizational studies whereas very few investigations have focused on entrepreneurial satisfaction. This is rather surprising since satisfaction has been emphasized as a fundamental measure for individual entrepreneurs (Cooper & Artz 1993). Especially in franchising, satisfaction is a key concept in understanding channel member behavior (Robicheaux & El-Ansary 1975–1976). A six-page questionnaire was mailed to 815 franchisees representing thirty-six retail, service, restaurant, cafe and fast food franchises. This nationwide sample represented more than forty percent of the total amount of franchisors and over half of all franchisees in Finland. A response rate of fortytwo percent (n = 339) was obtained after two mailings and a reminder post card. Subsequently, the data were enlarged and non-response bias was investigated by conducting 143 phone inte...