【正文】 Persons entering selfemployment by being franchisees monly 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 pany. The franchise is a safe bet, according to the conventional wisdom. It is time to reconsider this wisdom. A nationwide survey of selfemployed 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 . Bureau of the Census Characteristics of Business Owners data base is utilized, and all of these firms were surveyed in late 1991 to determine firm survival rates. By late 1991, percent of the franchisees and percent of the non franchise young firms active in 1987 had discontinued operations. Further independent business vs. franchisee parisons reveal that the young firms started Without the benefit of a parent franchisor were significantly more profitable than the franchise firms. In short, the franchise route to selfemployment is associated with higher business failure rates and lower profits than independent business ownership. This study describes various 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 capitalized firms headed by college graduate owners working fulltime 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 minorityowned franchise and independent small business subsamples reveal that survival patterns among minorityowned 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 prehensive crosssection and time series 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 piled by the . Bureau of the Census in 1992. One limitation of the CBO data base is its exclusion of firm’s fitting tax returns as regular corporations: the CBO includes only proprietorships, partnerships, and Scorporation tillers B. Measuring survival patterns among young small businesses: Database considerations Most evidence on franchise survival rates is forthing from journalistic sources. A recent ad in 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 claims that percent of Decorating Den39。 its franchisees invest between $17,000 and $50,000 to launch their firms. Business failure rate 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 . Department of Commerce as their source. In fact, the . 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 . House of Representatives Committee on Small Busine