How do the many challenges currently facing SMEs affect the succession process? Does the younger generation lack the courage to be entrepreneurial? Dr Rosemarie Kay discussed these questions and many other aspects of family business sucession with two female entrepreneurs and a member of the state parliament at a business event at the end of April organised by the Young Economic Council of North Rhine-Westphalia.
According to IfM studies, around three quarters of businesses that are planned to be handed over remain on the market. Those companies that are shut down tend to be small and are predominantly characterised by poor profitability, a lower export orientation and/or a lower propensity to invest before the planned handover.
