With a study, the family-run companies in Germany want to point out their role: In the past decade, they have created far more jobs than the DAX companies without a dominant family. They are also less inclined to relocate jobs abroad.
Large family businesses have created significantly more new jobs than DAX companies in the past decade. They also hire a larger proportion of their new employees in Germany, while DAX companies without a dominant family in the background are more likely to create new jobs abroad. The Institute for SME Research at the University of Mannheim came to these conclusions in a study. The client was the Foundation for Family Businesses in Munich.
According to this, the 26 largest family companies in Germany created 837,000 new jobs worldwide from 2011 to 2020, the 26 DAX companies without a dominant family created a good 390,000. In Germany, according to the study, there were only around 48,000 new jobs in the 26 DAX companies, compared to a good 267,000 in the 26 largest family businesses. The Mannheim scientists classified every company that is majority family-owned as a “family company” – regardless of whether the company in question is listed on the stock exchange or is managed by family members. Accordingly, four DAX corporations also belong to the family businesses: Volkswagen, Beiersdorf, Henkel and Merck.
The basis of the study was the comparison of family businesses with the 26 corporations listed in the DAX at the end of 2020, in which no controlling families are in the background: The authors of the study compared the employment of the largest 26 companies. In the overarching evaluation, they also compared the data from the 26 DAX companies with those from the 500 largest family businesses in Germany. In absolute figures, the Schwarz Group, which owns the supermarket chains Lidl and Kaufland, was in first place with 190,000 new jobs. It was followed by Volkswagen with 160,000, Bosch with around 92,000 and the Aldi group with a good 84,000. The authors have not yet compiled the figures for the Corona years 2021 and 2022.
The Mannheim Institute presented the study for the sixth time since 2007. The foundation combined the publication with a political appeal: “The study shows that family businesses have been able to demonstrably survive crises better and keep their workforce together even in difficult times, especially in Germany,” said CEO Rainer Kirchdörfer. “It is therefore essential not to disadvantage this type of company in the currently tense situation.”
