Creative SMEs are heavily focusing on the creating process designing new products and services. Consequently, their managers tend to loose contact with crucial management issues. Especially their knowledge of the financial aspects of their business can be so limited that they fail to connect with the …

The main purpose of this dissertation is to identify the factors that explain success and failure in SME business transfers. Three key concepts have been defined in the research framework: firm resources, capabilities (of predecessor and successor) and (successor’s) strategic renewal. Altogether these …

Vast empirical evidence underscores that exporting firms are more productive than non-exporters. As governments accordingly pursue export-promoting policies we are interested in the firmness of these conclusions with respect to African small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and the influence of the …

Recently Leroy et al. (2008) tested if the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) predicts exit behavior of entrepreneurs: liquidation or transfer. He added the purchasers view to the TPB: firm viability and intangible assets. We retested Leroy et al. hypotheses on a more refined dataset of 136 firms in another …

The EU and national governments rely on expert panels and opinions for their policies (EU, 2003; EU, 2006a; EU, 2006b) on SME ownership transfers. Also entrepreneurs depend on expert opinions and advice. We know from expert studies that expert judgment may lead to confusion and conflicting results. …

In this study we test if successor’s timing of the acquisition and his actions account for better firm performance. We surveyed 500 Dutch SME successors two to six years after their acquisition. With ANOVA we tested successor’s timing (declining, average and increasing economical growth) and actions …

This paper explores if there is a relation between governance boards in small and medium sized family firms and performance indicators of the firm. A governance board can be either a supervisory or an advisory board, this in line with the two tier governance structure that is used in the Netherlands. …