The influence of entrepreneurial personality on franchisee performance: A cross-cultural analysis

Abstract

Through a survey-based study of 761 franchisees from four countries - the US, the UK, France and Spain - this research examines how a franchisee’s entrepreneurial personality traits affects the financial and relational performance of franchise units. Whilst there is consensus that franchisee characteristics are important for successful franchise networks, there is a longstanding debate within the franchise literature as to the status, and indeed desirability, of franchisees as entrepreneurs. First, we consider how the personality traits of proactivity, innovativeness and locus of control influence the manifestation of entrepreneurial behaviours within the franchise unit, and both the direct and indirect relationships with unit performance. Second, we explore these relationships in two contexts, one associated with high entrepreneurial values (the US and the UK), and another with low (France and Spain) to determine if the results are consistent across cultures which value entrepreneurship differently. The results suggest that franchisee performance, in terms of both financial performance and relationship quality, are indirectly enhanced by a proactive disposition, mediated by entrepreneurial behaviours. A direct positive relationship was found between locus of control and performance outcomes, but interestingly, franchisees with more innovative personalities performed less well financially. The relationships between franchisee personality, EO and performance were found to be largely consistent across the two cultural groups.