Business Transfers, Family Firms and Entrepreneurship (Routledge Studies in Entrepreneurship and Small Business)

‘Business transfer’ refers to the transfer of ownership and leadership from one or more outgoing owner-manager(s) to one or more incoming owner-manager(s). Apart from all the company's material assets, it presupposes that information, relationships, know-how and social capital are also transmitted from one to the other.

While much of the research on entrepreneurship has focused on new business ventures, few studies have considered business transfers as an alternative way of embarking on entrepreneurial activities. Business Transfers, Family Firms and Entrepreneurship provides the international community with a more comprehensive state-of-the-art of business transfer studies, which will enrich readers’ understanding. The business transfer is examined through different prisms: family businesses, internal business transfers to employees, external business transfers, and woman in business transfers.

This book deals with business transfer as a whole, following a logic of continuity and sustainability for the transferred firm. It offers a refreshing point of view on business transfers, in terms of both the process and the actors, and from both the seller’s and the buyer’s sides. It presents the research on all types of business transfer including internal and external transfers and will be of interest to researchers, academics, and students in the fields of entrepreneurship, small business management, family business, and strategic management. It can also be instructive for practitioners and stakeholders involved in a business transfer.

Bérangère Deschamps is a Professor of Entrepreneurship at Grenoble Alps University and Researcher at the CERAG Laboratory, France.

Audrey Missonier is a Professor at Montpellier Business School, France, member of MRM (Research in Management) and of the LabEx Entrepreneurship.

Catherine Thevenard-Puthod is Professor of Entrepreneurship and Strategic Management in the Savoie Mont-Blanc University and a member of IREGE Research Institute, France.

Paulette Robic works at the Département Gestion des Entreprises et des Administrations, LEMNA, University of Nantes, France.

Dominique Barbelivien is a researcher at IAE Nantes, University of Nantes, France.