1、毕业论文（设计）外文翻译 题 目： 农村零售终端连锁经营模式研究 一、外文原文 标题： A Comparison of Franchise and Independent Small Business Survival Rates 原文： ABSTRACT. Aspiring entrepreneurs choosing to become franchisees certainly expect to improve their chances of survival during the turbulent early years of business startup and opera
2、tion. Alignment with a franchisor parent company offers the franchisee managerial assistance, access to financial capital, and access to markets via the right to utilize the parent company trademark. This study examines survival patterns among franchise and non franchise small firms started between
3、1984 and 1987: survival through late 1991 is tracked for all firms. Although the franchise operations are larger scale, better capitalized young firms, the independent business startups are found to be more profitable and their survival prospects are better than those of franchises. A. Introduction
4、Persons entering self-employment by becoming franchisees commonly believe that their chances of surviving those early turbulent years of small business operations are enhanced by their decision to align with a franchisor parent company. The franchise is a safe bet, according to the conventional wisd
5、om. It is time to reconsider this wisdom. A nationwide survey of self-employed persons active in small business in 1987 serves as the data base analyzed in this study. A sample of 20,554 young firms drawn from the U.S. Bureau of the Census Characteristics of Business Owners data base is utilized, an
6、d all of these firms were surveyed in late 1991 to determine firm survival rates. By late 1991, 34.7 percent of the franchisees and 28.0 percent of the non franchise young firms active in 1987 had discontinued operations. Further independent business vs. franchisee comparisons reveal that the young
7、firms started Without the benefit of a parent franchisor were significantly more profitable than the franchise firms. In short, the franchise route to self-employment is associated with higher business failure rates and lower profits than independent business ownership. This study describes various
8、owner traits and operational characteristics of franchise and non franchise young firms. Logistic regression equations are utilized to isolate the impact of the franchise characteristic on firm survival prospects when owner and firm traits are controlled for. It is the larger scale, better capitaliz
9、ed firms headed by college graduate owners working full-time in their small businesses that are most likely to remain in operation； the franchise trait, other factors constant, exhibits a highly negative relationship to firm survival prospects. Separate analyses of minority-owned franchise and indep
10、endent small business subsamples reveal that survival patterns among minority-owned firms closely resemble those present in the overall small business universe: franchise operations are more likely to go out of business than independent firm startups. The comprehensive cross-section and time series
11、data on young small businesses analyzed in this study are drawn from a large nationwide small business data base - the Characteristics of Business Owners (CBO) data base - that was compiled by the U.S. Bureau of the Census in 1992. One limitation of the CBO data base is its exclusion of firms fittin
12、g tax returns as regular corporations: the CBO includes only proprietorships, partnerships, and S-corporation tillers B. Measuring survival patterns among young small businesses: Database considerations Most evidence on franchise survival rates is forthcoming from journalistic sources. A recent ad i
13、n business week, for example, claimed that a franchisee has a four times greater chance to succeed than an entrepreneur who launches a new independent business. Factual underpinnings for this claim were not apparent. At the other end of the journalistic spectrum, the February 1994 issue of magazine
14、claims that 50.7 percent of Decorating Dens franchisees terminated operations during the three year period ending in December 1992. Decorating Den is a franchisor that grew spectacularly during the 1980s； its franchisees invest between $17,000 and $50,000 to launch their firms. Business failure rate
15、 figures disseminated by individual franchisors and the International Franchise Association suggest that 92 percent of franchise business startups are still in business at the end of five years, versus only 23 percent of the independent firms. Such promotional business failure rate figures cite the
16、U.S. Department of Commerce as their source. In fact, the U.S. Department of Commerce has, until recently, conducted annuals surveys of franchisors and published the results in biennial reports, franchising in the economy. According to the staff of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Smal
17、l Business, however, a comprehensive review of the franchising in the economy reports fails to show any figures providing comparable failure or success rates for franchises or franchisees. On the contrary, the reports note specifically that the number of failures is unknown(franchising in the econom
18、y, 1988), .My own review of applicable U.S. Department of Commerce publications reveals no studies or statistics capable of supporting comparative survival rates for new franchise versus independent business startups. Claims that franchise startups have vastly higher survival rates than independent
19、business startups cannot be supported by published U.S. Department of Commerce studies of small business. Thus, claims about franchise rates of survival have often tended to extremes. The purpose of this study is to raise the debate to a higher plain. The presence Of the CBO data base makes it possi
20、ble for issues of franchisee survival to be analyzed in objective, comprehensive ways. The CBO oversamples minority and women business owners, and it oversamples the larger scale small businesses that utilize paid employees. Of the roughly 90,000 small businesses surveyed to create the CBO data base
21、, over 70 percent responded. All of the reported statistics in this study are weighted to adjust for both survey nonresponsive, and the Census Bureaus nonrandom sampling in the creation of the CBO: the firms described in this study are therefore representative of young firms that grossed at least $5
22、000 in total revenues in 1987 .This study covers only firms formed over the 1984-1987 period and the unit of analysis is firms, not persons. Thus, the universe of firms covered in this study is 4,005,561 small businesses. A description of the CBO sample of young firms analyzed in the following pages appears in the appendix of this study. The sample of franchise firms analyzed heres not identical with the universe of franchise units opened between 1984 and 1987 for several reasons. First, some franchise units are
