IfM Bonn News

Press release | 25.07.2022 In the pandemic year 2020, SMEs assert their economic importance

Calculating based on the European Commission's definition of SMEs, there were around 3.35 million SMEs in Germany in 2020. That makes 99.3% of all companies in the private sector.

Participation in external events | 21.07.2022 IfM Researcher as discussant at the EBES conference

Conferences offer researchers the opportunity to present and discuss their research results.

Participation in external events | 20.07.2022 IfM Bonn at G-Forum 2022

Researchers from the IfM Bonn will once again present their research findings at the Interdisciplinary Annual Conference on Entrepreneurship, Innovation and SMEs (G-Forum).

External publications | 19.07.2022 Why established Mittelstand companies and startups cooperate

Which motives play a role in the fact that established Mittelstand companies cooperate with start-ups? Dr Jonas Löher answers this question in his article for the book "Corporate-Startup-Partnerschaften. Innovation through Collaboration". After all, both types of companies have different …

Press release | 12.07.2022 There are more hybrid self-employed entrepreneurs than previously assumed

Both the total number of hybrid self-employed entrepreneurs as well as their share of the workforce increased significantly since 2001. In 2001, there were 2.46 million hybrid self-employed entrepreneurs registered. In 2016, this number had increased to 3.39 million. By 2016, their number had also …

Participation in external events | 12.07.2022 Results of IfM research at the Diana Conference

How did the restrictions amid the Covid-19 pandemic influence women's entrepreneurship? Are there any differences compared to male-led businesses?

Podcasts | 21.06.2022 Questions and answers about business succession

The IfM researchers estimate that by 2026, around 38,000 companies will be up for transfer each year because their owners are retiring from management due to age, illness or death.

Participation in external events | 20.06.2022 Focus on the popularity of the Mittelstand

How do narratives affect the popularity of the Mittelstand? Prof Dr Friederike Welter (IfM Bonn/University of Siegen) answered this question in mid-June at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies in Cologne.

Participation in external events | 14.06.2022 Hybrid self-employment is popular among senior workers

The number of people who are self-employed and employed at the same time rose from 2.4 million to 3.4 million between 2001 and 2016. Dr Olivier Butkowski reported in his presentation at the workshop of the Institute of Economic and Social Research Institute of the Hans Böckler Stiftung in Düsseldorf …

Guests at the IfM | 08.06.2022 Resilience of the Mittelstand to crises

Do Mittelstand companies make the German economy more resilient to crises? Prof. Dr. Michael Berlemann (Helmut Schmidt University, Hamburg), Dr. Vera Jahn (Ruhr University Bochum) and Dr. Robert Lehmann (Ifo Institute, Munich) analysed this question based on the example of the economic and financial …

Press release | 02.06.2022 Digitisation in SMEs is progressing very slowly

The proportion of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with online sales of at least one per cent of total turnover has risen by two percentage points compared to 2020 (2021: 19 %).

IfM Publications | 01.06.2022 Regional start-up ecosystem does not make the difference in the impact of the Corona pandemic on regional start-up activity

In 2020, the Covid 19-pandemic and the anti-pandemic measures – in addition to the amendment of the Handicrafts Regulation – had a negative impact on start-up activity in the majority of districts. The extent to which start-up activity in a region declined or occasionally increased varies …

Participation in external events | 01.06.2022 Towards more diversity in teams

How can diversity management be further fostered in SMEs? What are the advantages of mixed teams? Dr Teita Bijedić presented the results of various IfM studies in the context of diversity at the panel discussion at the FDP event "Das hat Zukunft – Diversity im Mittelstand". These included also the …

Participation in external events | 30.05.2022 How we will work in the future

According to last year's survey for the Zukunftspanel Mittelstand, companies in Germany see digitalisation as an opportunity to combat the increasing shortage of skilled workers in Germany.

Participation in external events | 25.05.2022 Number of hybrid entrepreneurs rises

There is significantly more hybrid entrepreneurs in Germany than previously assumed. Dr Olivier Butkowski presented data at the expert discussion of the Forschungsnetzwerk Alterssicherung at the end of May. He said that the number of hybrid entrepreneurs rose from 2.4 million (2001) to 3.4 million …