Project Abstract
This project is designed to explore the impact of a significant natural disaster (the Canterbury Earthquake) has on the survival rate of small businesses. Specifically, this study proposes to extend the work of Jones (2007) on how franchises and independent restaurants compete by attempting to shape and transfer demand using entrepreneurial marketing processes. The study extends work done in the U.K. and Australia on the drivers of small firm survival, and provides additional insight into small business survival strategies after tremendous economic and environmental change. The study would seek to determine if an assumed underlying survival advantage confirmed in other empirical studies aids the survival of independently owned restaurants after the effects of the economic shock associated with the most recent earth quake.
