The importance of owner-managed SMEs and regional apprenticeship activity: evidence from the German Mittelstand

Is the German Mittelstand more resistant to crises?

“…For our empirical analysis it is necessary to distinguish between Mittelstand and non-Mittelstand firms. As explained earlier, we follow the idea to define Mittelstand firms as owner-managed small-and mediumsized enterprises (Berlemann et al, 2007;Becker and Ulrich, 2011;Berlemann & Jahn, 2016;Jahn, 2018). More precisely, we base our analysis on the definition proposed by Berlemann et al (2007) and classify a firm as belonging to the Mittelstand whenever the following three criteria are met simultaneously:…”

“…While, for example, the Institut fuer Mittelstandsforschung Bonn (IfM) refers solely to the unity of ownership and management in its definition of the Mittelstand, other definitions also include firm size (Berlemann et al, 2007;Becker & Ulrich, 2011;Berlemann & Jahn, 2016;Jahn, 2018). This is due to the argument that Mittelstand firms can only show their strengths in terms of high flexibility and short decision-making paths if the company does not exceed a certain size, as size is connected to various forms of internal company transaction costs (Ewers et al, 2003).…”

Is the German Mittelstand More Resistant to Crises? Empirical Evidence from the Great Recession

“…While, for example, the Institut fuer Mittelstandsforschung Bonn (IfM) refers solely to the unity of ownership and management in its definition of the Mittelstand, other definitions also include firm-size (Berlemann et al, 2007;Becker and Ulrich, 2011;Berlemann and Jahn, 2016;Jahn, 2018). This is due to the argument that Mittelstand firms can only show their strengths in terms of high flexibility and short decisionmaking paths if the company does not exceed a certain size, as size is connected to various forms of internal company transaction costs (Ewers et al, 2003).…”

“…For our empirical analysis it is necessary to distinguish between Mittelstand and non-Mittelstand firms. As explained earlier, we follow the idea to define Mittelstand firms as owner-managed small and medium-sized enterprises (Berlemann et al 2007, Becker and Ulrich 2011, Berlemann and Jahn 2016, Jahn 2018. More precisely, we base our analysis on the definition proposed by Berlemann et al (2007) and classify a firm as belonging to the Mittelstand whenever the following three criteria are met simultaneously:…”

Le Mittelstand et le pragmatisme allemand : un début de solution pour le cas des PME françaises ?

“…Notamment, et sans prétention à l'exhaustivité, celle ayant pour sujet de comparer les performances à l'international de l'économie française à l'économie allemande (Fontagné et Gaulier, 2008), les articles comparant la performance économique et industrielle des deux pays ou le rôle des PME dans l'économie nationale respective (Fabre, 2012(Fabre, , 2013. D'autres articles s'essayant à décrire le Mittelstand et son environnement (Bourgeois, 2010 ;Lang, 2013), son comportement innovateur (Bourgeois, 2005), démontrant le rôle du Mittelstand dans la formation duale (Jahn, 2018) ou décrivant son financement (Schackmnn-Fallis, 2011). Il existe également une littérature très riche traitant du modèle allemand (Utterwedde, 2005(Utterwedde, , 2009Henard, 2012).…”