Information on Mittelstand enterprises

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Geopolitical challenges

For many decades, the multilateral dismantling of trade barriers and broad trade policy stability contributed ...

SME Development Barometer

IfM Bonn uses the "Survey on the Access to Finance of Enterprises", to report semiannually on the current ...

13.11.2025 Business performance influences succession decisions

Entrepreneurs prefer to pass on their life's work within the family. Dr André Pahnke, Dr Rosemarie Kay and Dr Susanne Schlepphorst have examined in a study whether and, if so, how the performance of the company influences the owner's decision on succession.

12.11.2025 IfM President gave Schumpeter Lecture at the SME Assembly 2025

Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Friederike Welter made a plea for "everyday entrepreneurship" at the SME Assembly 2025 in Copenhagen in mid-November as part of the Schumpeter Lecture "Innovation in Enterprise"

IfM President presented current research findings

IfM video "Bureaucratic burden in plant and mechanical engineering"

The Mittelstand in North Rhine-Westphalia

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IfM-Position Paper

The impact of the provisional US-EU trade agreement on Mittelstand enterprises

On 27 July 2025, the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen and US President Donald Trump settled on a preliminary trade agreement. Of particular relevance to Mittelstand enterprises is that US import tariffs on most goods will only rise to 15% instead of the 30% previously anounced.

In other areas, such as the pharmaceutical industry, the level of customs duties remains unclear, while tariffs of 50% will continue to be levied on steel and aluminium imports into the US.