IfM Bonn News

Germany has around 3.6 million self-employed people. A third of them are women, and a quarter of all self-employed people have a migrant background.

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If entrepreneurs can draw on individual social capital and functioning networks and if they are also mentally and emotionally stabile, it is generally easier for them to survive sudden disruptions and crises.

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Research by Dr Nadine Schlömer-Laufen, Olga Suprinovič and Dr Markus Rieger-Fels shows that demographic change is leading to an increase in the number of family businesses looking for a successor.

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As in the past four years, the issue of "skilled workers/demographic development“was the biggest challenge for entrepreneurs in 2025: According to the survey, four in ten companies find it difficult to recruit qualified staff despite the current economic slowdown.

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Entrepreneurship research has traditionally focused primarily on companies with exceptional developments.

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Although 63% of exporting companies report feeling the direct im-pact of US tariffs through higher costs, and 60% are experiencing indirect effects such as declining demand, German companies are responding in a largerly pragmatic manner.

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Does public childcare provision help reduce the gender differences in the propensity of starting a business?

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Federal Minister of Economics Katherina Reiche has appointed Professor Friederike Welter as a member of the SME Advisory Board at the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy.

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According to estimates by the IfM Bonn, a succession will be due in around 186,000 companies over the next five years, as their owners are expected to step down from management because of age, illness or death.

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Representatives of the Organisation for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises and Regional Innovation and the Japan External Trade Organisation met with Dr Christian Schröder, Dr Jonas Löher und Dr Sebastian Schneider at the end of November to discuss the progress of digital transformation in Germany.

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Researchers of the IfM Bonn presented their results in three presentations at this year's "Research in Entrepreneurship and Small Business" (RENT) conference in mid-November in Enschede, Netherlands.

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The academic study of social change and challenges has repeatedly influenced and advanced the development of entrepreneurship research in the past.

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Many working women generally reduce their working hours after giving birth, which is associated with a loss of income.

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The IfM Bonn's latest SME Barometer shows that turnover and profits of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) fell again in the third quarter. By contrast, the positive trend in investment continued.

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In the same way that life circumstances, such as unemployment, influence women's decisions to become entrepreneurs, personal experiences also influence the further development of women-led businesses.

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