Der Mittelstand wird gemeinhin als Rückgrat der deutschen Wirtschaft bezeichnet. Aufgrund der spezifischen Strukturen kleiner und mittlerer Unternehmen werden diese von der Dynamik ihres wirtschaftlichen Umfelds immer wieder vor neue Herausforderungen gestellt. Wesentliche Problemfelder stellen...

Small and medium-sized enterprises are a centrepiece of Europe's economy. Due to their limited size and their generally lower creditworthiness, their access to financial market instruments is more limited than for large enterprises, which benefit from more elaborate Treasury operations,...

The volume is a collection of papers on 'M&A in Japan - a new instrument for corporate policy', with a special emphasis on small and medium firms, presented at a workshop in December 1999. The first contribution gives an overview of international M&A in recent years. Next, preliminery results of...

Strong lending relationships between banks and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) play a key role in the bank-based financial system of Germany. So far, they have been mainly described by the notion of an housebank and transactional features of long-term bank-customer relationships. The...

Successful innovation is a precondition for economic prosperity. While various potential determinants of innovative activity have been considered, little empirical evidence is yet available for the influence of firm governance issues. This paper aims at filling this gap in the literature by...