Publications
IfM Bonn publishes its research findings primarily in its publication series: study results are published as "IfM-Materials" - or in condensed form as a "Denkpapier" (summary). Statistical analyses and results appear in the series "Daten und Fakten". Discussion and technical papers from all research areas are published as "Working Papers".
In addition, until 2012 selected articles were published in the series "Schriften zur Mittelstandsforschung" (Gabler Verlag). Under the "External Publications" tab, you find numerous essays by IfM researchers that have appeared in (peer-reviewed) specialist journals and external publication series.
584 Results
External publication | 2016 Supporting Women Entrepreneurs in Germany
The report contains an overview of current and planned measures to promote entrepreneurial independence for women in Germany, as well as an analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of these measures in the areas of entrepreneurial skills, access to financing, and institutional framework conditions.
External publication | 2016 Entrepreneurs and entrepreneur inside in Germany
For a long time, entrepreneurship was associated with patriarchal families. However, a glance at history shows that you don't have to be born to be an entrepreneur.
Facts and figures | 2016 Information and data sources on the financing structures of medium-sized companies
In the discussion about the financing or equity capitalization of medium-sized companies, the possibilities for borrowing, new forms of financing and thus the changing framework conditions for lending to small and medium-sized companies are currently coming to the fore. In this context, various institutions publish, sometimes regularly, corresponding study results and key figures (reports).
External publication | 2016 Challenges of Industry 4.0 for mittelstand businesses
Despite the high economic potentials associated with Industry 4.0, medium-sized manufacturing companies are still relatively reluctant to approach the topic. In particular, the evaluation of large data streams for the optimization of process flows or for downstream services is hardly used.
IfM-Materialien | 2016 Exploitation of innovations by scientists working at universities
An important pillar of innovation policy is the support of knowledge transfer and the exploitation of marketable inventions from university research. Despite support for the exploitation of knowledge, a large proportion of innovations from research activities at German universities remain unused.
IfM-Materialien | 2016 Attractiveness of young companies for skilled workers
The attractiveness of an employer is not influenced by the age of the company. Of the young companies that have been looking for skilled workers in the past five years, more than half had difficulties in recruiting skilled workers.
Working Papers | 2016 Crucial Skills for the Entrepreneurial Success of Fine Artists
This article aims to define crucial skills for the entrepreneurial success of working fine artists as these skills have not yet been clearly identified for this professional group.
External publication | 2016 Keeping It in The Family: Financial Rewards in Family Firms
Income in entrepreneurial families is characterized by uncertainty regarding the amount and timing of income. In addition, they can be attributed to both the business and the family and cannot be fully recorded, as they include both cash assets and the goods and services that are consumed.
External publication | 2016 SME, medium-sized business, family business: A clarification
It is not the size of a company that determines whether it belongs to a medium-sized company or not.
External publication | 2016 Family Business and Regional Science: Bridging the gap
The paper examines not only the regional role of family enterprises in terms of what family enterprises contribute to regional economic development ...
IfM-Materialien | 2016 Financing structures and strategies for SMEs
The financing environment SMEs is changing. The changes in the economic environment and the associated low interest rate policy as well as the Basel regulations show a clear influence on the financing structures of SMEs.
External publication | 2016 BDI/PwC Mittelstandspanel - autumn 2015
As part of a long-term study on medium-sized industrial companies in Germany, the IfM Bonn surveyed a fixed group of industrial companies for the 22nd time in autumn 2015 to assess the economic situation and topics relevant to daily politics and business management.
External publication | 2015 Selbstständigen-Monitor 2014: Self-employed in Germany 2011 to 2014
This report examines the development of the self-employed and start-ups in Germany in the period 2011 to 2014 on the basis of the microcensus. The total number of self-employed fell from 5,011,000 to 4,947,000 in the period under review.
IfM-Materialien | 2015 Significance of digitization in medium-sized businesses
The survey of predominantly medium-sized companies shows that they attach great importance to digitization for their own company. For internationally active companies, the significance is even greater.
Facts and figures | 2015 Business start-ups by foreign citizens
Foreigners have increasingly influenced the process of business start-ups in both Germany and North Rhine-Westphalia between 2004 and 2014. Foreign founders have played a particularly important role in the commercial sector.
IfM-Materialien | 2015 Business Start-ups and Crowd Invest
Crowd investing in Germany has been a new financing method available to innovative growth companies since 2011. Here, the mostly young companies try to address a broad mass of private investors through a targeted public call.
External publication | 2015 Context, Process and Gender in Entrepreneurship
The book places special emphasis on the behavior of individuals and groups in different contexts. At the same time it looks at individuals and structural factors that shape entrepreneurial activities and small business.
External publication | 2015 Researching Trust in Different Cultures
Trust is not an "objective" phenomenon that can be easily measured and whose understanding is identical in all cultures and states. The understanding and meaning of the term "trust" is rather related to the respective society and is a context-dependent phenomenon that poses problems for measurement and empirical analysis.
External publication | 2015 Italy – Key Issues and Policies
The report provides a comprehensive assessment of the structure and performance of SME and entrepreneurship activity in Italy, the business environment and framework conditions for SMEs and entrepreneurship, the strategic framework and delivery arrangements for policy, national SME and entrepreneurship programmes and the local dimension of the policy.
IfM-Materialien | 2015 Economic policy implications of start-up research
Start-ups are often described as a driving force for economic development and employment growth. Promoting start-ups is a permanent task of economic policy. However, the number of start-ups in Germany is declining or stagnating.