The second edition of this professional guide presents an extended overview of the German family enterprise landscape including its structure and industry distribution. Its goal is to provide a detailed assessment of the development of German family enterprises. Based on several new scientific studies conducted by the authors, the prerequisits of corporate longevity and mature growth are investigated in detail. Analyzing data from over 500 family firms, the book offers a valuable reference guide for market research and academic research on family-owned enterprises. A unique factor: the authors' revealing insights into the decline of family firms.

Maximilian Lantelme examines the historical growth and decline developments of large German family and non-family businesses between 1971 and 2011. Based on a sample of the 143 largest German companies in 1971 and in 2011, the author investigates the long-term development of each company and calculates compound annual growth rates (CAGR) to compare the developments of total sales and of the number of employees between the enterprises with the overall development of the German economy. Additionally, he presents the exit rates as well as the reasons for the downfalls of the different types of companies. The results show a superior development of family businesses especially compared to non-family businesses due to lower exit and higher growth rates. The strategic implications are that family businesses should achieve a certain corridor of growth in the long-term to secure the company's existence over generations.

This book studies the long-term development of the 250 largest family and non-family enterprises in Germany between 1958 and 2018. In particular, the continuities and discontinuities of the companies’ ownership structure, operations and solvency are examined. Historical methods are used to advance the understanding of the attributed long-term orientation of family firms in family business research. The collected data of the 250 largest enterprises of 1958 provide the most comprehensive historical overview of the industrial landscape of this period. The long-term analyses show that more than half of the companies fail and less than a quarter keeps their ownership structure in the observation period of 60 years. In this timeframe, family-owned businesses have relatively stable ownership structures and superior survival rates compared to public companies although the latter experience higher growth rates. A listing of a family firm leads to the discontinuity of the family’s majority ownership in the mid- to long-term. Furthermore, company types like foundation-owned enterprises and foreign subsidiaries show even higher survival rates. The book closes with practical implications based on the identified development patterns of the surviving and failed enterprises.

This professional guide presents an extensive overview of the German family enterprise landscape, with a special focus on its structure and diversity. Drawing on several scientific studies conducted by the authors, its goal is to provide a detailed assessment of the development of German family enterprises. Analyzing data from over 500 family firms, it offers a valuable reference guide for market research and academic research on family-owned enterprises. A unique factor: the authors' revealing insights into the decline of family firms.