Demographics and Business Failure
We alluded above to the effect of business owners’ demographic
characteristics on business success. However, as
numerous studies have focused on this issue (e.g., Van
Praag 2003), we are taking a different approach to demographics
in this study by looking at the demographics of the
market, rather than the restaurateur. That said, owner demographics
clearly influence restaurant success. Several studies
examined a possible gender effect on organizational
survival (Kalleberg and Leicht 1991), for instance. Study
findings include the following: men are more likely to be
self-employed than women (Hisrich and Brush 1984), businesses
owned by men have lower failure rates and are more
profitable than those owned by women (Aldrich 1989; Bird
and Sapp 2004; Cuba, Decenzo, and Anish 1983; Loscocco
et al. 1991), but on average, businesses owned by men andwomen are equally successful (Chell and Baines 1998;
Kalleberg and Leicht 1991).