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Information on Mittelstand enterprises

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  • applied research

Dossier Bureaucracy

Bureaucracy per se fulfills important economic functions: It helps to ensure legal certainty, planning security and equal treatment. However, despite several bureaucracy relief laws, entrepreneurs have the feeling that the bureaucratic burden on the part of the state, but also on the part of the self-governing organizations of the economy, standardization institutes and professional associations, is constantly growing.

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IfM Bonn News

More process and product innovations in Germany than the EU average

More than every third company (36%) developed new products, imitated innovations from competitors, or further developed their own products between 2018 and 2020. While the majority (63%) of companies with more than 250 employees did so, only every third small enterprise and 44% of medium-sized …

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Significant gap between desire and reality in succession planning

Succession in a family business is generally regarded as a critical point in the life cycle of the enterprise. But how far do owners realise their succession plans?

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IfM-Position Paper

In need of a paradigm shift – Rethinking bureaucracy reduction and regulation policies

Highly complex economies and societies need regulations to ensure their ability to function. These ensure legal and planning certainty and prevent corruption. However, especially in the view of SMEs, the "optimal" level of bureaucracy – which is difficult to determine empirically – seems to be far exceeded by now.

According to a recent study by IfM Bonn (Holz, Icks & Nielen 2023), the bureaucratic burden on companies goes well beyond the statistically measured time and cost expenditures.

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Figure of the months

For

75.9 %

of industrial companies, the EU internal market is the most important sales market, and for 69.5 % the most important procurement market.

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Policy Brief "Entrepreneurship in Focus"

Decarbonisation of medium-sized firms in the manufacturing sector

A reduction of CO2-emissions and a decarbonisation of the manufacturing sector is important to achieve the climate targets of the Paris Agreement. This empirical study examines the decarbonisation of medium-sized firms in the manufacturing sector.

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Cooperation with University of Siegen

Cooperation with University of Siegen

Zukunftspanel Mittelstand

Zukunftspanel Mittelstand

NUI region ranking

NUI region ranking

Offensive Mittelstand

Offensive Mittelstand

Data of the IfM Bonn

Data of the IfM Bonn

Third party research

Third party research