Entrepreneurial Attitudes: Comparing Independent Business’ Owners with Franchisees

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 or becoming franchisee seems to depend on different behaviors and attitudes of the entrepreneur. This research aims verify, based on entrepreneurial behavioral characteristics and the theory of planned behavior, whether there are differences in the degree of entrepreneurial attitude of franchisees and independent business owners, especially the food service industry. The issue as to possibility finding different attitudes in this study originated from assumedly less entrepreneurial characteristics of the franchisee, such as greater security and reduced innovation. 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 of Measure 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 is higher. The most determinant factor in the entrepreneurial attitude differences observed in this study seems to be time in business.