Abstract
If current reports and forecasts on succession in Germany are to be believed, we are experiencing a wave of succession in the German Mittelstand. This wave is characterized by a shift in both the legitimacy of the targeted subjects and the institutionalized rules of succession. Contrary to the usual stereotypes, until recently the dominant mode of transfer was internal, by family succession, whereas now the majority of company owners are considering selling to employees, external private individuals, investors, or other companies. In her presentation, Isabell Stamm focuses on the conditions of this shift in a complex blend of aging owners, progressing individualization, good economic development and low interest rates in recent years, and an expansion of the M+A market towards the SME segment. She lays out the ways in which the understanding of firm ownership and the associated rules of property transfer are shifting. In doing so, she decodes the meaning of firm ownership as an embedded and dynamic link between owning groups and firms, thereby providing a dual perspective on the social structuring and hermeneutics in the process of owning a firm.
