On a European scale company succession in small and medium-sized enterprises is heralded to become a topic of increasing academic and practical relevance. As an example, the Commission of the European Communities (2006) states that one third of European entrepreneurs will leave within the next ten years. In absolute figures, this refers to approximately 690,000 SMEs and 2.8 million jobs every year. In this situation more and more entrepreneurs have difficulties to find an appropriate successor within the own family and are forced to consider external persons in the succession process. Consequently, the identification and assessment of relevant company assets will be of crucial interest for potential investors. However, the nature of companies has changed, and qualitative (intangible) aspects of company performance increasingly replace previously relevant assets such as tangible assets. A wide-ranging literature review revealed a myriad of articles related to “intangible assets/intellectual capital” in general and the valuation/measurement of them in particular. However, detailed analytical work on the content of these articles revealed neither a theoretical nor an empirical elaboration on providing information about the current status of this topic in SMEs. This situation represented the starting point of the Ph. D. research. Hypothesizing that these intangibles assets (IA) are the key drivers of organizational development and success in companies, the underlying research questions are concerned with the role of these factors in the company succession process in SMEs seen from the investor’s perspective. The paper provides the results of an empirical study of the relevance of intangible assets in general and for the purpose of company succession in particular. Thereby, the descriptive study provides status quo views on the attitude towards IA, the most relevant IA drivers in SMEs, applied IA Valuation methods compared to theory, the influence of knowledge / professional experience of the valuer and finally, decisive factors of successful SMEs indicating clues for the negotiation process between seller and buyer. The total population consisted of the two subpopulations Trade Corporations and Chambers of Commerce. The associations play an important role in Germany. Each German company registered in Germany is obliged by law to join one of the associations. The skilled crafts in Germany are member of the trade corporation, and the rest of the companies with the exception of free professions and farms are member of the chambers of commerce. Besides providing services in different areas such as vocational training, law or general economical questions they are also first hand contact referring to business start up and transfer. Based on the central role of them in Germany and their contacts to SMEs, it was decided to choose the associations representing the total population of the quantitative research.
Intangible assets in company succession in German SME
DURST, Susanne;
2007
Abstract
On a European scale company succession in small and medium-sized enterprises is heralded to become a topic of increasing academic and practical relevance. As an example, the Commission of the European Communities (2006) states that one third of European entrepreneurs will leave within the next ten years. In absolute figures, this refers to approximately 690,000 SMEs and 2.8 million jobs every year. In this situation more and more entrepreneurs have difficulties to find an appropriate successor within the own family and are forced to consider external persons in the succession process. Consequently, the identification and assessment of relevant company assets will be of crucial interest for potential investors. However, the nature of companies has changed, and qualitative (intangible) aspects of company performance increasingly replace previously relevant assets such as tangible assets. A wide-ranging literature review revealed a myriad of articles related to “intangible assets/intellectual capital” in general and the valuation/measurement of them in particular. However, detailed analytical work on the content of these articles revealed neither a theoretical nor an empirical elaboration on providing information about the current status of this topic in SMEs. This situation represented the starting point of the Ph. D. research. Hypothesizing that these intangibles assets (IA) are the key drivers of organizational development and success in companies, the underlying research questions are concerned with the role of these factors in the company succession process in SMEs seen from the investor’s perspective. The paper provides the results of an empirical study of the relevance of intangible assets in general and for the purpose of company succession in particular. Thereby, the descriptive study provides status quo views on the attitude towards IA, the most relevant IA drivers in SMEs, applied IA Valuation methods compared to theory, the influence of knowledge / professional experience of the valuer and finally, decisive factors of successful SMEs indicating clues for the negotiation process between seller and buyer. The total population consisted of the two subpopulations Trade Corporations and Chambers of Commerce. The associations play an important role in Germany. Each German company registered in Germany is obliged by law to join one of the associations. The skilled crafts in Germany are member of the trade corporation, and the rest of the companies with the exception of free professions and farms are member of the chambers of commerce. Besides providing services in different areas such as vocational training, law or general economical questions they are also first hand contact referring to business start up and transfer. Based on the central role of them in Germany and their contacts to SMEs, it was decided to choose the associations representing the total population of the quantitative research.I documenti in SFERA sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
