IfM Bonn News

News & Updates | 11.08.2025 Self-employed with a child?!

What differences are there between self-employed and paid employed women after the birth of a child?

External publications | 04.08.2025 Women as entrepreneurs and successors

Around 38,000 business handovers are currently planned each year.

IfM Publications | 01.08.2025 The economic downturn is not yet over

IfM Bonn's latest SME Barometer shows that an analysis of key figures such as turnover and profits indicates that the economic situation of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) continued to improve in the second quarter.

Participation in external events | 30.07.2025 Professional training in India

How attractive is vocational education in India, and what does this mean for the local labour market?

Participation in external events | 29.07.2025 IfM President at conferences in Copenhagen

Professor Friederike Welter participated in a panel discussion on "The Role of Industrial Policy in Shaping Innovation" at the conference "Reimagining Entrepreneurship & Innovation for the 21st Century: Tailored Solutions to Global Challenges" in Copenhagen on 23 July.

Awards | 29.07.2025 Further honours for IfM President

Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Friederike Welter (IfM Bonn/University of Siegen) received yesterday the Foundational Paper Award from the Entrepreneurship Division at the 85th Annual Conference of the Academy of Management (AOM) in Copenhagen.

Press release | 24.07.2025 More apprentices in larger establishments, fewer in very small establishments

Die Anzahl der Auszubildenden in der gewerblichen Wirtschaft und in den Freien Berufen ist in 2024 um rund 19.000 gegenüber dem Vorjahr gestiegen. Insgesamt lag sie Ende Dezember 2024 bei 1,52 Millionen.

IfM Publications | 21.07.2025 Self-employed with children

What are the effects of having a child on women's self-employment? Are there differences between self-employed women with employees and solo self-employed women?

Press release | 21.07.2025 A quarter of self-employed craftswomen return to full operational duties just six weeks after childbirth

For many self-employed craftswomen in North Rhine-Westphalia, pregnancy brings not only joyful anticipation but also significant physical and financial strain. This is the finding of a recent survey conducted by the Institut für Mittelstandsforschung (IfM) Bonn on behalf of the Ministry of Economic …

IfM Publications | 14.07.2025 Conscientiousness promotes independence in craft trades

Craftspeople are characterised by a high degree of precision, quality and diligence in their technical work.

External publications | 10.07.2025 Machine learning methods versus conventional methods

Do machine learning methods predict U.S. IPO withdrawals more accurately than conventional regression models (logit)? Dr Annika Reiff analyses this question in her article "Comparing the Prediction Performance of Random Forest, Lasso, and Logit in the Context of IPO Withdrawal"

External publications | 07.07.2025 Local entrepreneurship empowers resilience to extreme weather

Can the regional business structure influence the resilience of a region in the face of extreme weather events?

IfM Publications | 07.07.2025 What mothers encourages to start their own businesses

Do parental allowances and parental leave affect mothers' willingness to start their own businesses? A team of authors analyses this question in the latest Policy Brief, "Time or money? Mothers and Start-up Decisions".

IfM Publications | 02.07.2025 Women want specific information about starting a business

Women still start businesses less often than men. According to research by Dr Natalia Gorynia-Pfeffer and Armin Baharian (both from the RKW Competence Centre in Eschborn), a more targeted approach with specific content could help to motivate more women to start a business.

External publications | 01.07.2025 Psychological costs are a burden in public procurement

Unclear requirements and the obligation to enter the same data perpetually are seen as one of the reasons why small and medium-sized construction companies rarely participate in public tenders.