Personal, organizational, and environmental factors as predictors of entrepreneurial success within a franchising company in the personnel service industry

The study's purpose was to compare the degree of success of entrepreneurs within a franchising system with their personal characteristics, as well as to examine the offices they own and characteristics of the environment in which these owners operate. This was done in order to identify the factors affecting their success. The study's uniqueness stemmed from the unusual sample composition: owners of 89 businesses located in 35 U.S. states. Moreover, the consistency of the organizations included in this sample (e.g., same industry, similarities in environmental conditions at start-up) offered some unprecedented control while making direct comparisons of organizational and entrepreneurial characteristics across business owners and their enterprises. The subjects consist of a group of entrepreneurs who founded, owned, and operated their businesses based on a franchising system.;Entrepreneurial success was defined with the help of the franchise headquarters' staff who compiled a list of the company's most successful business owners. Several influences on entrepreneurial success were considered: individual differences (e.g., personality, relevant life experiences), enterprise characteristics (a conglomerate variable: compliance with franchisor know-how), and environmental factors (e.g., hostility). Data was collected over a three year period. Entrepreneurial success was defined as hard financial outcomes and company rank within the franchising system. Zero-order correlations, moderated regression, ANCOVA, and t-tests were used to test the hypotheses.;None of the personality traits used in the study were significantly and meaningfully related to entrepreneurial success. These results did not support previous research findings regarding personality. Entrepreneurs with previous relevant managerial experience in the personnel industry and with college majors related to business fields had better financial success in their ventures, but the level of education did not predict the outcomes. Compliance with franchisor know-how also predicted business success outcomes (e.g. financial data) within the franchising system. Findings for moderator effects of the environment on the relationship between business outcome and personal and organizational variables were largely nonsignificant. One of the findings of the study suggests that a franchisor organization can predict future entrepreneurs' business success by matching candidates' relevant life experience with the nature of the personnel business; by encouraging candidates to comply closely to the corporate know-how further increases the possibility of entrepreneur's business success. Detailed findings, research implications, limitations and recommendations for future research directions were presented.