Many young firms use strategic actions to attract partners who help them increase the size of their operations quickly. This article examines the use of strategic actions to attract partners and increase system size in the context of franchising.

Assistant Professor Ashwin Aravindakshan and co-authors Scott Shane from Case Western Reserve University and Venkatesh Shankar from Texas A&M University build on research in entrepreneurship, marketing, organization theory, strategic management, and finance to develop specific hypotheses about the influences of franchisor pricing policy and strategic control decisions on system size.