Abstract
The purpose of this research is to understand the effect of franchising and dividend payments in the restaurant industry. To be specific, this study tried to assess whether franchising and dividend payments improve financial performance in restaurant firms, and whether restaurant firms that both engage in franchising and pay dividends can achieve superior returns to those firms that only do one or the other. Data was collected using Compustat from 2011–2020, a total of 94 restaurants with 600 firm year observations were included in the sample. The results of this study suggested that franchising and dividend payments each enables restaurant firms to achieve superior financial performance, and they reinforce each other to provide superior performance in U.S. restaurant firms.