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Policy Brief "Entrepreneurship in Focus"

The IfM Bonn and the Förderkreis Gründungs-Forschung e.V. (FGF) jointly edit the policy brief "Entrepreneurship in Focus" (formerly "Mittelstand aktuell") since November 2016. On 2 pages, research results on current topics are presented together with recommendations for economic policy makers.

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Policy Brief "Unternehmertum im Fokus" | 2024 Paradigm shift for a noticeable bureaucracy reduction

Companies perceive a significant increase in the bureaucratic burden, with psychological costs, opportunity costs and indirect follow-up costs also being highly relevant.

Policy Brief "Unternehmertum im Fokus" | 2024 The potential of angel investing in Entrepreneurship-Through-Acquisition

While the investment activities of business angels are primarily associated with startups, they also invest to a notable extent in the entrepreneurial acquisition variant of company formation ("Entrepreneurship-through-acquisition" or ETA).

Policy Brief "Unternehmertum im Fokus" | 2024 Capturing entrepreneurial activities among minors

The authors explain in the policy brief what minors’ entrepreneurial activities characterise. Minors mainly use self-employment to try things out, implement ideas on the market, and acquire skills that prepare them for their later working lives.

Policy Brief "Unternehmertum im Fokus" | 2023 How the Online Gig Economy Challenges the Education-Income Paradigm

It is a well-established finding in the social sciences that workers with higher educational qualifications have higher average incomes.

Policy Brief "Unternehmertum im Fokus" | 2023 The planned mandatory old-age provision system for new self-employed – how many will it affect?

The German government plans to introduce a mandatory old-age provision scheme for newly self-employed, who are not yet subject to a compulsory old-age provision scheme. The analysis of the authors suggests that many newly self-employed would not be subject to mandatory pension provisions because of their low income.

Policy Brief "Unternehmertum im Fokus" | 2023 Digitalization activities in the small enterprise sector: an urban-rural issue?

The concern that rural regions and their enterprises are at a disadvantage in the use of new digital technologies compared to urban areas due to a digital divide is a recurring theme in the political debate.

Policy Brief "Unternehmertum im Fokus" | 2023 SMEs now play a larger role in trade and FDI relations between Germany and Brazil

Using new statistical data sources, this policy brief highlights a considerable and growing importance of German SMEs for the trade and FDI relations between Brazil and Germany.

Policy Brief "Unternehmertum im Fokus" | 2023 How young and established companies differ with regard to sustainability and digitisation efforts

The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor data from 2021 shows that new business owner-managers and established business owner-managers have different digitisation and sustainability efforts.

Policy Brief "Unternehmertum im Fokus" | 2023 Hybrid self-employed and paid employees with a mid-job

Starting in July 2019, midijobbers acquire full pension entitlements despite reduced contributions. This favours hybrid self-employed with midijob over-dependent employees.

Policy Brief "Unternehmertum im Fokus" | 2023 Regional social capital and the entrepreneurial process

Business start-ups do not take place in a vacuum but are deeply embedded in the regional social context.

Policy Brief "Unternehmertum im Fokus" | 2022 The Prototyping Approach – A fresh look at the role of personality in entrepreneurial decision making

The Big Five personality model has been used repeatedly to explain entrepreneurial behaviour, and the traits extraversion and openness to experience have been shown to positively affect self-employment. However, this literature has largely ignored the interplay of the five traits, which is studied in psychological research as part of the person-centred prototyping approach to examining an individual's personality.

Policy Brief "Unternehmertum im Fokus" | 2022 Long-Term Effects of Socialism and Transformation on Self-Employment in East Germany

The rigorous anti-entrepreneurial policies that prevailed during communist regime did not leave any long-term negative effects on the level of self-employment in East Germany.

Policy Brief "Unternehmertum im Fokus" | 2022 Dependent self-employment in multi-level marketing

In 2020, the number of solo self-employed members in multi-level marketing (MLM) in Germany continued to rise.

Policy Brief "Unternehmertum im Fokus" | 2022 Business Dynamics in the Netherlands 2020: The First Phase of the Covid-19 Pandemic

During the large economic contraction in the Netherlands caused by the COVID-19 pandemic the number of bankruptcies surprisingly fell.

Policy Brief "Unternehmertum im Fokus" | 2021 Why there are fewer business successions than generally expected

In the public discussion on business succession, it is generally assumed that the number of companies is larger than the number of companies actually affected by the succession question.

Policy Brief "Unternehmertum im Fokus" | 2021 Entrepreneurship and knowledge as drivers of regional development in East Germany

East German regions, which had a relatively high density of private enterprises and a high qualification level of the workforce at the end of the GDR era, coped relatively well within the abrupt transition to a market economy more than 30 years ago.

Policy Brief "Unternehmertum im Fokus" | 2021 Succession as closure risk

Closures in the course of successions are a rare phenomenon. The analysis of businesses that were ready to be handed over and whose owners planned a handover in the period from 2012 to 2016 but closed down their business instead proves this.

Policy Brief "Unternehmertum im Fokus" | 2021 The (underestimated) potential of craft roll data for start-up and SME research

The business statistics of the Chambers of Skilled Crafts and Small Businesses hold a worthwhile data potential for start-up and SME research

Policy Brief "Unternehmertum im Fokus" | 2021 Income cuts and living standards in entrepreneurial households

Due to the pandemic-induced economic crisis, the self-employed are currently suffering considerable losses in sales and income. These income cuts affect not only the self-employed, but all members of households, who usually form an economic unit and support each other.

Policy Brief "Unternehmertum im Fokus" | 2020 Foundation processes and the effect of crises

Crises have an accelerating effect on foundation processes. This is proven by the analysis of start-ups during the financial crisis of 2007/09 and could also apply in the Corona Pandemic.