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Business Transferability Chances: Does the Gender of the Owner-Manager Matter?

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Women's Entrepreneurship in Europe

Part of the book series: FGF Studies in Small Business and Entrepreneurship ((FGFS))

Abstract

In this chapter, we examine the question of whether possible differences in the economic behavior and development of female- and male-led family enterprises prior to successions affect their transferability to the next generation. Using large-scale panel data, we find no general gender-specific differences in economic behavior in the pre-transfer phase, except the fact that women tend to invest less in capacity expansion and generate less turnover. These differences however are not the case in the profit situation of men- and women-led enterprises. Accordingly, men- and women-led enterprises do not differ in anticipating existence-threatening problems in the course of the business succession process. Differences in investment behavior therefore do not seem to harm the transfer process, although structural differences, including the company size or industry affiliation might.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut für Mittelstandsforschung (IfM) Bonn, Bonn, Germany

    Rosemarie Kay, André Pahnke & Susanne Schlepphorst

Authors
  1. Rosemarie Kay
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  2. André Pahnke
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  3. Susanne Schlepphorst
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Correspondence to Rosemarie Kay .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg, Oldenburg, Germany

    Stephanie Birkner

  2. University of Siegen, Siegen, Germany

    Kerstin Ettl

  3. University of Siegen/Institut für Mittelstandsforschung Bonn, Siegen, Germany

    Friederike Welter

  4. European University of Flensburg, Flensburg, Germany

    Ilona Ebbers

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Kay, R., Pahnke, A., Schlepphorst, S. (2018). Business Transferability Chances: Does the Gender of the Owner-Manager Matter?. In: Birkner, S., Ettl, K., Welter, F., Ebbers, I. (eds) Women's Entrepreneurship in Europe. FGF Studies in Small Business and Entrepreneurship. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96373-0_3

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