Purpose

The purpose of this study is to examine whether variation in franchising across US states can be explained by differences in state regulatory burdens.

Design/methodology/approach

Three years of US state-level panel data is used on measures of franchising activity published by the International Franchise Association. The authors measured variation in regulatory burdens across state governments using the regulatory freedom index, developed by the Cato Institute. Multiple regression analysis was the statistical technique used.

Findings

Controlling for state-level per capita personal income, educational attainment, unemployment and share of population identifying as non-white, the authors find states with fewer regulatory burdens for business owners have more franchises and franchise jobs per 100,000 residents, higher franchise output per capita and a larger share of small businesses are franchises. These results were robust to alternative econometric specifications. The results support our hypothesis that states with lower regulatory burdens will have more franchising activity.

Research limitations/implications

Only three years of data are currently available; however, our research provides some practical avenues for managers and policy makers to explore when considering new franchise opportunities or developing policies that impact regulatory burdens for small businesses.

Originality/value

This study contributes to the literature by providing supporting evidence for the relationship between US state institutional factors and franchised small businesses, and it adds a cross-state study to the existing literature using cross-country and cross-city data.

中文翻译：

---

美国各州的特许经营差异

目的

本研究的目的是检验美国各州特许经营的差异是否可以通过各州监管负担的差异来解释。

设计/方法/方法

三年的美国州级面板数据用于国际特许经营协会发布的特许经营活动衡量标准。作者使用卡托研究所开发的监管自由指数衡量了各州政府监管负担的变化。多元回归分析是使用的统计技术。

发现

控制州级人均个人收入、教育程度、失业率和非白人人口比例，作者发现对企业主监管负担较少的州每 10 万居民拥有更多的特许经营权和特许经营工作，人均特许经营权产出较高更大份额的小企业是特许经营权。这些结果对替代的计量经济学规范是稳健的。结果支持我们的假设，即监管负担较低的州将有更多的特许经营活动。

研究限制/影响

目前只有三年的数据；然而，我们的研究为管理者和政策制定者在考虑新的特许经营机会或制定影响小企业监管负担的政策时提供了一些实用的途径。

原创性/价值

本研究通过为美国各州制度因素与特许经营小企业之间的关系提供支持性证据来为文献做出贡献，并使用跨国和跨城市数据在现有文献中增加了一项跨州研究。