IfM Bonn News

Nachdem sich hierzulande sowohl Umsatz und Gewinn zum Ende 2025 in den kleinen und mittleren Unternehmen (KMU) leicht verbessert hatten, trübte sich ihre wirtschaftliche Situation in Deutschland – aber auch im EU-Raum – nicht zuletzt aufgrund des Krieges im Nahen Osten im ersten Quartal 2026 wieder …

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Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Friederike Welter talked about the challenges and opportunities facing Mittelstand enterprises at the German Metal Industry Association’s annual conference in Berlin in early May.

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Children of self-employed parents tend to be more open to becoming self-employed later in life than children of parents in salaried employment.

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"The Mittelstand is currently facing a wide range of challenges – from skill shortages and bureaucratic burdens to geopolitical change. But we also know that the Mittelstand businesses are highly adaptable and repeatedly develop innovative solutions. Necessary are appropriate framework conditions …

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Since the beginning of May, Dr Theo Bolin Simon is a visiting scholar at the IfM Bonn, amongst other institutions. Mainly, he leads the research division at the Global Ethic Institute in Tübingen on an interim basis and works at the University of Siegen in the Chair of Contextual Economics and …

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Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Friederike Welter takes 19th place in the current Research.com ranking of the TOP 100 researchers in the field of "Business and Management" in Germany.

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Artificial intelligence has taken hold in small and medium-sized enterprises. Around one in four SMEs in Germany was using AI processes in 2025. In 2024 it was only one in five companies.

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What career opportunities exist in a research institute? How does someone become a researcher? How does the public relations department communicate research findings to the public?

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Does ethics play a role in economics? How important should it be, especially when it comes to advising policymakers?

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Although the Chinese government has repeatedly used access to raw materials and intermediate goods as a political lever in recent years, many companies continue to rely on supplies from China. As a result, the value of goods imported from China, after a temporary decline, rose significantly again in …

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Although the number of business insolvencies rose by 10.3% last year to over 24,000 companies, the number of business closures remains significantly higher (2025: 270,000 companies).

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The number of new businesses is on the rise again in the commercial sector, the liberal professions and in agriculture and forestry (the non-commercial sector): in 2025, a total of around 395,000 full-time self-employed businesses were established.

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Health and safety is a top priority for companies – not least because fewer workplace accidents and absences due to illness have a positive impact on business productivity.

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"The decline in profitability that many businesses have suffered in recent years has led to the number of business transfers currently stagnating," reported Dr Rosemarie Kay in mid-March at the Federal-State Committee for Small and Medium-Sized Businesses in Wiesbaden.

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Women are more rarely applying for bank loans for their businesses than men or mixed-gender teams. "The reason for this is not that they find it harder to obtain bank loans.

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