Les freins à la transmissibilité de l'entreprise

Abstract

Within 10 years, more than 300,000 companies will be faced with the problem of business transfer. The economic and human challenges linked to transmission have often been addressed in the scientific literature. However, research relating the difficulties encountered by the owner and/or the successor throughout the whole process is scarce. The aim of this thesis is to identify and analyse the main factors that could hinder, and, in the worst case, even cause the failure of the business transfer. To this end, this analysis will gather information from literature, as well as the results of a quantitative study involving Belgian entrepreneurs and carried out by UCM and UNIZO in 2013, and the opinion of M&A professionals who are used to conduct this kind of transaction. We will focus more on the transfer of small businesses, that is to say, the natural persons and the companies whose turnover do not exceed 500,000 euros. According to scientific and professional documentation, these companies will increasingly be faced with this problem and encounter more difficulties throughout the process.