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ItalianoJanina Berkmann, a graduate of the English-language Bachelor's programme "Business & Management at the MCI in Innsbruck, was recently awarded the IMF Thesis Award by the Institute for Small and Medium-Sized Businesses and Family Enterprises (IMF) in Hamburg for her Bachelor's thesis. Based on several criteria such as structure and argumentation, academic quality and practical relevance for SMEs, Ms Berkmann's excellent thesis was convincing on all points.
In her work entitled "When the senior leaves and the junior takes over - preparing employees for succession in a family business", Ms Berkmann addresses an omnipresent challenge for family businesses. In particular, she looks at the role of employees in the succession process in family businesses. She concludes that predecessors and successors can prepare employees for the change in management through proper signals, open communication and trusting relationships.
With the IMF Thesis Award, the renowned Hamburg Institute for SMEs and Family Businesses recognises bachelor's and master's theses that make a special contribution to the understanding and further development of SMEs and family businesses. The prize was awarded for the first time in 2018.
The head of the ZFU Center for Family Business at the MCI, MCI professor Anita Zehrer, assigns this prize an important function in securing the business location: "The handover of a business is one of the most difficult entrepreneurial challenges faced by family businesses. The award shows the importance of the topic. I thank the IMF for this valuable initiative."