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Publications

IfM Bonn publishes its research findings primarily in its publication series: study results are published as "IfM-Materials" - or in condensed form as a "Denkpapier" (summary). Statistical analyses and results appear in the series "Daten und Fakten". Discussion and technical papers from all research areas are published as "Working Papers".

In addition, until 2012 selected articles were published in the series "Schriften zur Mittelstandsforschung" (Gabler Verlag). Under the "External Publications" tab, you find numerous essays by IfM researchers that have appeared in (peer-reviewed) specialist journals and external publication series.

520 Results

External publication | 2024 Sustainability of the Mittelstand - The CSRD as opportunity or challenge?

The EU Commission's Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) provides for an expansion and standardization of the content of sustainability reporting as well as an expansion of the group of companies subject to reporting requirements.

External publication | 2024 Family business successions between desire and reality

Family business successions are commonly considered as one of the most critical events of any family business. Yet, despite extensive research, current evidence on the actual extent to which family business owners accomplish, adapt, or even abandon their initial succession plans is astonishingly still lacking.

External publication | 2024 Family business succession planning: Do outcomes depend on the predominant gender on the management board?

Research on family business succession stresses that the business’s economic situation strongly influences its degree of attractiveness to potential successors.

Policy Brief "Unternehmertum im Fokus" | 2024 Paradigm shift for a noticeable bureaucracy reduction

Companies perceive a significant increase in the bureaucratic burden, with psychological costs, opportunity costs and indirect follow-up costs also being highly relevant.

External publication | 2024 Do we need a legal form "Gesellschaft mit gebundenem Vermögen"?

There is currently a controversial debate in Germany about the proposal to introduce the GmbH form "Gesellschaft mit gebundenem Vermögen". In this article, the authors examine the positive effects that the initiators attribute to the planned legal form from an economic perspective.

Working Papers | 2024 Regional Entrepreneurship: Pain or gain for economic growth?

This research note examines the relationship between start-up rates and GDP per capita growth in urban and rural regions in Germany.

Policy Brief "Unternehmertum im Fokus" | 2024 The potential of angel investing in Entrepreneurship-Through-Acquisition

While the investment activities of business angels are primarily associated with startups, they also invest to a notable extent in the entrepreneurial acquisition variant of company formation ("Entrepreneurship-through-acquisition" or ETA).

External publication | 2024 Access to digital finance: Equity crowdfunding across countries and platforms

Financing entrepreneurship spurs innovation and economic growth. Digital financial platforms that crowdfund equity for entrepreneurs have emerged globally, yet they remain poorly understood.

Facts and figures | 2024 The underrepresentation of women in entrepreneurship

Although the number of self-employed women has increased more than men in recent decades, there is still a clear under-representation of women in entrepreneurship.

Policy Brief "Unternehmertum im Fokus" | 2024 Capturing entrepreneurial activities among minors

The authors explain in the policy brief what minors’ entrepreneurial activities characterise. Minors mainly use self-employment to try things out, implement ideas on the market, and acquire skills that prepare them for their later working lives.

External publication | 2023 A multi-voiced account of family entrepreneuring research: expanding the agenda of family entrepreneurship

This conceptual, multi-voiced paper aims to collectively explore and theorize family entrepreneuring, which is a research stream dedicated to investigating the emergence and becoming of entrepreneurial phenomena in business families and family firms.

IfM-Background-Paper | 2023 Technology-open and broad-based R&I support - Assessement from the perspective of economic theory and economic policy

Innovations are important for the growth of an economy and their insitutional support is an integral element of innovation policy in Germany.

IfM-Materialien | 2023 Early detection of threats and opportunities – Developing an early detection concept

Currently, SMEs are confronted with several crises. The early detection of relevant threats and opportunities enables SMEs and economic policymakers to be prepared and set the appropriate framework conditions.

IfM-Materialien | 2023 Development trends in global value chains from the perspective of Mittelstand companies

The integration of German companies into global value chains also harbors the risk of adverse shocks from other economies being transmitted to Germany.

Chartbooks | 2023 How Hidden Champions in the manufacturing industry use artifical intelligence

Germany is home to the most Hidden Champions in the world. To maintain their market leadership, they have to integrate artificial intelligence (AI) applications and technologies into their business models.

IfM-Materialien | 2023 SME-friendly organisation of public procurement

The German government would like to amend public procurement without raising the access barriers for SME.

External publication | 2023 Analysing the bureaucratic burden in Germany – How can a noticeable reduc-tion in bureaucracy be achieved?

This study analyses the current bureaucratic burden on companies from a holistic, process-oriented (model) perspective – the so-called regulatory cycle. On the basis of a quantitative enterprise survey, an international comparison and a literature analysis, a phase-oriented, holistic action plan for a noticeable reduction of the bureaucratic burden is developed.

Policy Brief "Unternehmertum im Fokus" | 2023 How the Online Gig Economy Challenges the Education-Income Paradigm

It is a well-established finding in the social sciences that workers with higher educational qualifications have higher average incomes.

Chartbooks | 2023 Artificial Intelligence (AI) – spread, challenges and opportunities in the manufacturing industry

The question of how companies can use artificial intelligence (AI) for their purposes is becoming increasingly pressing.

Policy Brief "Unternehmertum im Fokus" | 2023 The planned mandatory old-age provision system for new self-employed – how many will it affect?

The German government plans to introduce a mandatory old-age provision scheme for newly self-employed, who are not yet subject to a compulsory old-age provision scheme. The analysis of the authors suggests that many newly self-employed would not be subject to mandatory pension provisions because of their low income.