Research on a sustainable business handing over of small and medium sized enterprises focused on the German market, in the context of globalization

The target of this dissertation is to analyze the current situation and process of a business handing over in small and medium sized family organization in Germany to develop a model to increase the success rate by taking into account the influencing factors and creating a desire of preparation in the organizations to understand the importance of thinking early enough about the process. To reach this target five core hypothesis have been chosen which have been answered during this dissertation. The created model of the business handing over life cycle including the influencing factors in the main goal of this dissertation and can be found in the chapter number six. In the first part of this dissertation the reader will receive the essence of a wide literature research which has been carried out to define different basic concepts regarding sustainable business in the context of globalization. The relation to different topic like business performance innovation, leadership, Risk- and change management has been developed and explained in detail to create the necessary basic knowledge base for the further studies. In the second chapter the current trends and developments about small and medium sized organizations in the European union has been analyzed, starting with the explanation of the current concepts of SMEs and family organizations followed by the effects of globalization focused on German SMEs. The importance of the SMEs for the German economy and the support for the European union for SMEs will also be a topic in the second chapter of this work. The second part of this work will include different studies which have been carried out over the time of this dissertation. The relation to supply chain management and German family-based business will be explained in the chapter 3.3 after the relation of SMEs, innovation and sustainable business development has been explained. The fourth chapter will cover the study which has been carried out with an online survey-based research about the sustainable handing over of a family based German SME to improve the business performance. The results are analyzed focused on the current management, on the successor of the organization and about the process of handing over the business. The last study in chapter five includes personal interviews with organizations about the relation between emotions, financing and communication within the family and a sustainable business handing over of German SME. The received personal and details information have been combined with the quantitative data of the online survey to develop the model of a sustainable business handing over with the handing over life cycle which is taking the influencing factors in to account to improve the process and increase the success rate.