The closure of family businesses in the course of the succession process often attracts a lot of public attention: these businesses are assumed to be fundamentally competitive. Their business model, after all, has kept them successfully on the market for many years, decades or even generations.
A project team from the IfM Bonn has now investigated for the policy brief "Entrepreneurship in Focus" how far the closures of family businesses differ from other business closures. Their result: the competitiveness of the business is the main deciding factor. The implementation of a non-family succession also increases the risk of closure.
