This article investigates the future of SME sellers. It builds upon the rare work on entrepreneurial exit (by selling to an outsider). Based on the theoretical concept of end-of-career feelings, defined as the acceptance of life changes (Marbot 2006), and on a re-examination of secondary data from fifty-seven life stories of French sellers, our results show above all that end-of-career feelings genuinely affect these entrepreneurs/small business owners. They also reveal four types of sellers with different reinvestment strategies and recovery levers. We propose a fifth risk profile in addition to the typology. Finally, we discuss the emergence, evolution, or possible absence of reinvestment strategies.
Keywords
- SME transfer
- entrepreneurial exit
- end-of-career feelings
- typology
- reinvestment strategy