Publication The German Mittelstand in the age of globalisation

This article shows the involvement of the German Mittelstand in foreign trade activities and gives an overview of the extent to which German SMEs are controlled by parent companies abroad. The data basis consists of microdata from annual structural business statistics for reference years 2009 to 2013. The data have been complemented by information from foreign trade statistics and from the statistical business register. The descriptive analyses show that the degree of internationalisation, measured in terms of imports and exports, is smaller for SMEs than for large enterprises and that the economic importance of SMEs under foreign control has increased over time.

Author: Dr. René Söllner

Article published in "WISTA – Scientific Journal", 2-2016