Le devenir des cédants de PME: une typologie en fonction des stratégies de réinvestissement

This article investigates the future of SME sellers. It extends 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 57 life stories of French sellers, our results show above all that end-of-career feelings genuinely affect these entrepreneurs/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.