Assessing stakeholders’ needs and expectations: A business transfer matchmaking-platform from a marketing perspective

Even though almost half a million companies in Europe are transferred every year, only 30% of family-owned businesses manage to complete this process successfully. Therefore, a matchmaking platform to facilitate national and transnational business succession was developed as a part of the Interreg ENTER-transfer project (Interreg Central Europe, CE 1158). In this article, the authors present the platform, its planned functionalities, as well as feedback which was collected from future users and public authorities (i.e. future “customers”). To ensure maximal functionality of the platform and the fulfillment of stakeholder needs, which are prerequisites of a successful go-to-market and high future user frequency, qualitative interviews with public authorities and an additional 23 interviews with potential users from Austria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Poland were conducted. Based on the data collected, the authors identified the prerequisites, motivations, essential infrastructure, cooperation possibilities, problematic elements, and specific consulting requirements necessary to develop and implement successful business ownership transfer. The analysis of the information gathered during the interviews as well as practical implications stemming from the data and its effect on the platform development and marketing will be presented in this article.