‘Business transfer’ refers to the transfer of ownership and leadership from one or more outgoing owner-manager(s) to one or more incoming owner-manager(s). Apart from all the company's material assets, it presupposes that information, relationships, know-how and social capital are also transmitted from one to the other. While much of the research on entrepreneurship has focused on new business ventures, few studies have considered business transfers as an alternative way of embarking on entrepreneurial activities. Business Transfers, Family Firms and Entrepreneurship provides the international community with a more comprehensive state-of-the-art of business transfer studies, which will enrich readers’ understanding. The business transfer is examined through different prisms: family businesses, internal business transfers to employees, external business transfers, and woman in business transfers. This book deals with business transfer as a whole, following a logic of continuity and sustainability for the transferred firm. It offers a refreshing point of view on business transfers, in terms of both the process and the actors, and from both the seller’s and the buyer’s sides. It presents the research on all types of business transfer including internal and external transfers and will be of interest to researchers, academics, and students in the fields of entrepreneurship, small business management, family business, and strategic management. It can also be instructive for practitioners and stakeholders involved in a business transfer.

This book provides an extensive overview of family business-related topics such as context and uniqueness, lifecycle and ownership configurations, conflict management, corporate governance, succession challenges, internationalization, innovation, and socioemotional wealth. Each chapter features clear learning objectives, key concepts and terminology, and dedicated case studies to demonstrate the main messages. The book not only considers the day-to-day dynamics in family businesses, but also places substantial emphasis on the entrepreneurial skills needed for these businesses to survive and thrive, today and tomorrow. In addition, it elaborates and discusses a number of best practice examples, which offer valuable guidance not only for scholars, but also for students who wish to study these challenges.

Introducing a new concept in family businesses Transgenerational Entrepreneurship addresses how these businesses achieve growth and longevity through entrepreneurial activities. It focuses on the resources, capabilities and mindsets that families develop and draw upon in order to be entrepreneurial across generations, and presents findings from an international research collaboration between family business researchers and practitioners. In addition to a comprehensive conceptual chapter, the editors include a unique set of empirical case-based research papers that investigates transgenerational entrepreneurship in different European contexts. They bring together and integrate frontier research on entrepreneurship and family business, as well as provide a basis for future research. Academics, teachers and students in business and management, entrepreneurship and family business will find this path-breaking book of value, as will libraries, policy makers and consultants.

This outstanding book provides you with a detailed look at family businesses, the most prevalent form of business in the world. Whether you are a business student, or a member of a family who owns a business, you will definitely benefit from this book, which leads with an introduction to the unique nature of family businesses. Inside, the author explores the many differences between a family-owned business and a nonfamily-owned business. He discusses the major family business theories and shows how family firms make business decisions. This book also defines the significant issues prevalent in family firms and explores the most problematic issue: the succession or the transfer of ownership to the next generation. If you are a professional advisor to family firms—such as accountants, attorneys, bankers, insurance providers, and financial services—you’ll undoubtedly develop a better understanding for your clients.

Deals with the issue of entrepreneurship and family business. This title considers the issues, problems, contexts, or processes that make a family firm more entrepreneurial. It covers topics such as the emergence and growth of family businesses, and the use of entrepreneurial policies, practices and strategies by family firms.

Japanese family businesses are among the oldest in the world and many of them prove a history record of 200 years and more. Research on several case studies of century old firms (‘shinise’) in Japan reveal three factors as secrets of their longevity: (1) the Japanese family system (‘ie’) favours the eldest son for succession; (2) the option for adopting a capable successor; (3) the inclusion of the relationships with employees, customers, and members of the local community into the strategic decision making. The analysis deals with the succession process in Japan compared to the WIFU Model of Succession in German family firms, and rounds off with perspectives on how to deal with the challenges the Japanese family businesses face regarding the recent changes in the Japanese society.

The ageing of society does not stop at company owners. More and more companies have to be handed over to the new generation. This process is a challenge for all parties involved. The support of business transfer assistance is just as essential for the European economy as the promotion of start-ups because both are critical to the development of the European economy. Over 450.000 firms with over two million jobs are transferred to a new owner in the EU-28 each year. Around one-third of these transfers fail, and the companies are closed. The future growth and sustainability of innovative companies in the Baltic Sea Region are severely limited by failed business transfers. Furthermore, due to a lack of available and appropriate successors, many firms are liquidated rather than transferred. This publication is part of the project INBETS (www.inbets.eu), highlights the background to the current situation of business transfers in the Baltic Sea Region, and proposes a policy program to promote business successions and open up new target groups of potential successors. Part-financed by the European Union (European Development Fund and European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument) within the INBETS project. This publication does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the European Commission.