Succession in Flemish SMEs

The research project consists of four parts. The central research question for Part 1 can be described as: 'To what extent are the companies where the managing director, manager or person in charge of the executive board is over 55 years of age aware of the problems of follow-up and acquisition and to what extent has the situation changed since the previous study in 2015?'. In order to compare the results of this study well with the previous study in 2015, this survey will be limited to companies operating for at least 20 years and comply with the legal form BVBA or NV. The selection of SMEs will be made on a stratified basis so that sufficient SMEs from each size category are questioned. The data collection will be done through an online survey prepared with the Qualtrics platform. The client wants to know whether entrepreneurs are more aware of the problems of Follow-up and Acquisition today, whether they are better informed and whether they were using the guidance opportunities offered The central research question that will be answered in Part 2 is: To what extent are pre-starters and start-ups aware that acquisition is an opportunity to start? The research in Part 3 aims to carry out an investigation into the intention to grow through acquisition. The survey will be carried out in the selected samples of pre-starters, start-ups and growers in Flanders on the basis of an online survey. Finally, a number of policy statements will be formulated in Part 4.

Keywords:BUSINESS TRANSFER, FAMILY FIRMS

Disciplines:Business management

Project type:Collaboration project