Step I: Quantitative
Investigation—A Success-
Filled Industry
Step I of our study involved the analysis
of restaurant ownership turnover data
from 1996 through 1999. The data were
collected with the help of the health
department of Columbus, Ohio, a major
metropolitan area in the Midwestern
United States.
Most of the earlier studies assessing restaurant
failure have used either telephonedirectory
business listings or bankruptcy
data. To overcome the incomplete nature
of data from bankruptcy filings and telephone
directories, our study used data on
2,439 operating-license permits from the
Columbus health department. (We
removed from the data set the licenses for
other food-service facilities, such as
daycare centers, hospitals, and grocery
stores, to achieve our total N of 2,439.)