The Female Business Takeover Opportunity Europe Cannot Afford to Miss

By Fernanda Arreola and Cédric Diridollou

Europe is entering a major wave of business transfers. For women and younger entrepreneurs, taking over an existing company may offer a different route into entrepreneurship.

Europe is not running out of businesses. It is running out of successors. Across Europe, an important entrepreneurial transition is underway. An ageing population, the retirement of business owners and changing economic conditions are creating a growing pool of companies that need new owners. This is not simply a succession issue. It is becoming an opportunity to rethink how entrepreneurship itself happens.

The scale is significant. According to the European Economic and Social Committee, approximately 450,000 firms employing around two million people are transferred every year across Europe. At the same time, an estimated 150,000 businesses risk failing to transfer successfully each year, potentially putting around 600,000 jobs at risk. The Committee links this challenge directly to population ageing and the increasing number of entrepreneurs planning to withdraw from their businesses.

The issue is now sufficiently important that the European Commission issued a new Recommendation on business transfers in June 2026. The Commission describes the growing number of SME owners approaching retirement without a designated successor as a pressing demographic challenge. Failed transfers can mean the loss of jobs, know-how and economic value.

Rather than replacing one generation with another overnight, two generations could temporarily combine their resources, networks, experience and perspectives.

France provides an even clearer illustration of the scale of the opportunity. According to Bpifrance Le Lab’s 2025 study, 370,000 French TPE, PME and ETI could potentially be transferred within five years, representing approximately three million jobs. Forty per cent of business leaders surveyed said they intended to transfer their company within five years.

This creates a striking paradox. While there are potentially hundreds of thousands of businesses looking for new owners, many aspiring entrepreneurs continue to think primarily about starting from scratch. However, buying an existing company can provide something that a start-up cannot: customers, employees, suppliers, market knowledge, infrastructure, reputation and an established business model.

The question, therefore, may no longer simply be, “Who will take over these businesses?”

But “What new forms of entrepreneurship could emerge if we rethink how to make it easier to proceed with a takeover, who takes over, with whom, and how?”

The untapped opportunity of female business takeovers

The traditional image of a business transfer is relatively straightforward: an owner retires, a family member takes over, or an external entrepreneur buys the company. But the demographic context, and the changing desires of descendants to follow an “imposed career” is challenging this model.

One particularly interesting development concerns women. The French government’s 2025 Baromètre de l’entrepreneuriat des femmes reports that women account for 36% of business takeover and transfer projects in France, a proportion that has remained relatively stable over the past decade. The report describes business takeover as an important opportunity for new generations to enter entrepreneurship.

However, the opportunity is therefore not simply to encourage more women to take over businesses. It is to ask whether different takeover configurations could help address some of the barriers they face. This creates an interesting intersection between two challenges: Europe’s need for successors and the persistent under-representation of women in business leadership.

What if the takeover itself became intergenerational?

One underexplored possibility is an intergenerational business takeover. Rather than replacing one generation with another overnight, two generations could temporarily combine their resources, networks, experience and perspectives.

The logic is simple. The senior entrepreneur can contribute experience, industry knowledge, established stakeholder relationships and management skills. The younger entrepreneur can contribute new market perspectives, digital capabilities, different approaches to innovation and new customer expectations.

The value is not simply that one generation “teaches” the other. It is that different forms of entrepreneurial capital can be combined during the transition. A senior partner can provide access to networks and credibility while the younger partner progressively establishes her own managerial identity. The senior generation does not disappear immediately, but neither does it have to remain permanently in control.

This is precisely the opportunity explored in our recent article, “La reprise d’entreprise par un binôme intergénérationnel : une expérience réussie ?”, published in Entreprendre & Innover. The study examines an unusual case: a father and daughter who jointly take over an existing French SME and deliberately organize their partnership around complementary roles and a future transfer of leadership.

A father, a daughter and an intergenerational opportunity

Our research focused on an unusual form of business takeover: an intergenerational team combining a young female successor with an experienced senior entrepreneur.

In 2008, Dorothée Diego, 24, and her father Daniel, 55, acquired Alexandra Diffusion, a French SME specializing in greeting cards and stationery. Their profiles were highly complementary. Daniel brought three decades of managerial and commercial experience in large corporations, while Dorothée brought recent international business training, a younger perspective and an appetite for innovation.

Their partnership was designed as a transition rather than a permanent co-leadership arrangement. Daniel would initially provide experience and credibility, while Dorothée progressively assumed responsibility, with the explicit objective that she would eventually take over.

Three characteristics made the case particularly interesting.

First, they turned asymmetry into complementarity. Rather than attempting to equalize their roles, they divided responsibilities according to their respective strengths.

Second, they made the succession horizon explicit. Their understanding of roles, duration and eventual transfer of leadership created a form of psychological contract that reduced ambiguity and potential conflicts.

Third, Dorothée had to transform legitimacy into credibility. Although she had the formal position of co-owner and benefited from her father’s reputation, she still had to demonstrate that she could lead. She did so through operational immersion, close contact with employees and customers, and concrete modernization of the business. In this process, Daniel’s role was not to lead indefinitely but to use his own credibility to help his daughter build hers.

The senior generation does not disappear immediately, but neither does it have to remain permanently in control.

The approach combined continuity and renewal. The company retained important elements of its identity and established relationships while introducing new management tools, digital technologies and products. Over time, turnover increased from approximately €950,000 to €2.2 million, customers from around 700 to 1,200, and product references from 1,000 to 3,000.

The case therefore suggests that an intergenerational takeover can be more than a way of sharing responsibility. It can become a transition architecture in which experience provides stability while the younger generation progressively develops the credibility and autonomy required to lead.

Five recommendations for an intergenerational takeover

The Diego case suggests five practical principles for entrepreneurs, successors and business-transfer advisers.

1. Design complementarity, not symmetry. Identify the distinctive capabilities each generation brings and organize responsibilities around them.
2. Make the succession horizon explicit. Clarify roles, decision rights and the expected path from shared leadership to independent leadership.
3. Build credibility through action. Give the younger successor genuine operational exposure and visible responsibilities; formal legitimacy alone is rarely sufficient.
4. Use senior credibility to develop the next leader. The experienced partner should open doors and provide reassurance while progressively giving the younger successor greater visibility and autonomy.
5. Modernize without destroying identity. Preserve the relationships, knowledge and values that create the company’s strength while selectively changing the practices and technologies that limit its future.

About the Authors

Fernanda Arreola is a Professor of Strategy, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship at ESSCA. Her research interests focus on service innovation, governance, and social entrepreneurship. Fernanda has held numerous managerial posts and possesses a range of international academic and professional experience.

Cédric Diridollou holds a PhD in economics and is a lecturer and researcher at ISC Paris, where he also heads an academic department. His research focuses primarily on economic models, digital markets, and innovation. He has also participated in entrepreneurial projects and worked to protect biodiversity within an association.