Entrepreneurial orientation rhetoric and franchise system size: The moderating role of military veteran recruitment

Many franchisors seek to enlist military veterans as franchisees because veterans' military training and experience help them act entrepreneurially without straying outside a franchise's business model. We examine whether efforts to recruit veterans alter the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation (EO) rhetoric in franchisee recruitment material and number of franchises. Using a sample of Franchise 500 firms, we find that veteran recruitment has significant interactions with overall EO, innovativeness and risk-taking. Overall, our results suggest that recruiting veterans as franchisees offers important benefits to franchisors.