129 Results
IfM-Materialien | 2016 Mittelstands policy in change
The middle class has been changing for years. In view of a new self-conception in the SME sector, SME policy should therefore also develop further.
IfM-Materialien | 2016 Fast growing companies in Germany: characteristics and determinants of their growth
Based on survey data, this study examines the key characteristics of fast-growing companies with at least 10 employees and the determinants of their growth.
IfM-Materialien | 2016 Exploitation of innovations by scientists working at universities
An important pillar of innovation policy is the support of knowledge transfer and the exploitation of marketable inventions from university research. Despite support for the exploitation of knowledge, a large proportion of innovations from research activities at German universities remain unused.
IfM-Materialien | 2016 Attractiveness of young companies for skilled workers
The attractiveness of an employer is not influenced by the age of the company. Of the young companies that have been looking for skilled workers in the past five years, more than half had difficulties in recruiting skilled workers.
IfM-Materialien | 2016 Financing structures and strategies for SMEs
The financing environment SMEs is changing. The changes in the economic environment and the associated low interest rate policy as well as the Basel regulations show a clear influence on the financing structures of SMEs.
IfM-Materialien | 2015 Significance of digitization in medium-sized businesses
The survey of predominantly medium-sized companies shows that they attach great importance to digitization for their own company. For internationally active companies, the significance is even greater.
IfM-Materialien | 2015 Business Start-ups and Crowd Invest
Crowd investing in Germany has been a new financing method available to innovative growth companies since 2011. Here, the mostly young companies try to address a broad mass of private investors through a targeted public call.
IfM-Materialien | 2015 Economic policy implications of start-up research
Start-ups are often described as a driving force for economic development and employment growth. Promoting start-ups is a permanent task of economic policy. However, the number of start-ups in Germany is declining or stagnating.
IfM-Materialien | 2014 Zukunftspanel Mittelstand - A survey of experts on the challenges facing medium-sized businesses
Demographic change, globalization, scarcity of raw materials, climate change and accelerating technological development present (new) challenges for small and medium-sized businesses. An identification and assessment of current and future challenges was carried out with the help of the newly launched Future Panel for SMEs, an internet-based expert survey of SME policy, business and SME research.
IfM-Materialien | 2014 The income situation of self-employed persons and the use of state benefits on the basis of SGB II
Based on the panel "Labor Market and Social Security", this study examines the income situation of self-employed persons. The focus is not only on the socio-economic characteristics of the self-employed in the basic provision of social security, but also on possible causes for the receipt of unemployment benefit II by the self-employed.
IfM-Materialien | 2014 Concepts and effects of sustainable entrepreneurship
Corporate sustainability management aims at the responsible use of resources and the appropriate design of internal processes. Companies that combine sustainable management with strategic goals and go beyond the legal requirements and mere philanthropy use the instruments of stakeholder management and corporate compliance.
IfM-Materialien | 2014 Gender, innovation and business development
Research has repeatedly found that women in general and female entrepreneurs in particular are less innovative than their male counterparts. This is often associated with a weaker business performance of female-managed companies.
IfM-Materialien | 2014 Small and medium-sized enterprises in the information and communications industry in North Rhine-Westphalia
This study examines the ICT sector in North Rhine-Westphalia using special evaluations of official statistics from the VAT panel and data from a company survey. This state is proving to be a location with a largely prosperous ICT company base.
IfM-Materialien | 2013 Degree of internationalization of SMEs. Results of a company survey
Between 2009 and 2011, around 1.3 million companies from Germany, 99% of which are SMEs, were internationally active. This means that about 37% of all companies had direct foreign contacts (when indirect forms of contact are taken into account: 44%).
IfM-Materialien | 2013 Prosperity effects of the founding process
The study analyzes the wealth effects of start-ups using data from the VAT panel. By means of a cohort analysis, the inventory of start-ups, turnover, intermediate consumption and value added as well as employment are examined.
IfM-Materialien | 2013 Innovation activities of family businesses
Family businesses are just as innovative as non-family businesses. However, there are systematic differences with regard to the drivers of innovation: One such driver is the size of the company. It has been shown that smaller family businesses have relatively large innovation advantages.
IfM-Materialien | 2013 Taking on trainees - analyses specific to company size
This study examines the questions of what role the company's own training of skilled workers has played to date and will play in the future in securing the demand for skilled workers and, in particular, whether and to what extent small and medium-sized enterprises in particular have difficulties in retaining training graduates.
IfM-Materialien | 2013 The sustainable employment contribution of SMEs - A sectoral analysis with special emphasis on R&D and knowledge-intensive industries
The SME hypothesis states that small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) make a relatively higher contribution to the creation of new jobs subject to social insurance contributions than large companies in relation to existing employment.
IfM-Materialien | 2013 The employment contribution of medium-sized export companies
Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are an anchor of stability for employment in times of crisis. This is the conclusion reached by the scientists of the Bonn Institute for SME Research (IfM Bonn): Between 2001 and 2009, the number of employees in all SMEs grew by 13.6 % - and even in the crisis years 2008/09 by 2.9 %.
IfM-Materialien | 2012 Public funding of company takeovers - necessity and design
This study investigated the question of what public support services are offered for successions in Germany and the extent to which state support is necessary.