# 4 Pour une approche écosystémique de la transmission – reprise

 Reports on business transfers and takeovers come one after another, and they all look alike (Dombre-Coste, 2015; Boumedjaoud, Cloutier and Messeghem, 2019; Canévet, Cardon and Rietmann, 2022). They highlight the same worrying finding: on the one hand, a growing number of businesses up for sale and, on the other, a shortage of buyers. Some studies estimate that 700000 businesses will need to be taken over within the next 10 years (Canévet, Cardon and Rietmann, 2022), the vast majority of them micro-enterprises, SMEs and mid-sized companies. To solve this complex problem, the approach adopted has often been analytical, or even technical. Legal and tax instruments such as the Dutreil pact help to meet this challenge. However, the solution calls for a renewed approach that could be described as ecosystemic. The aim of this new issue of EE Lab Publications is to gain a better understanding of the business transfer and takeover ecosystem.