Abstract
Based on a multiple cases study, this article focuses on the suicide of SME owners-managers, a taboo topic that remains virtually unexplored by specialists in SME and entrepreneurship. More specifically, it attempts to understand the meaning and causes of the suicidal gesture among business leaders by mobilizing a double framework of analysis: the typology of suicide from sociologist Baechler (1975) and the stressors of entrepreneurial activity of Lechat and Torrès (2016a, 2016b, 2017). To this end, the paper suggests a novel methodological approach on the basis of secondary data on 25 concrete cases of suicide that occurred in France and Italy. The results highlight the predominant role of over-indebtedness in the root causes that lead managers to end their lives. However, not everyone experiences the situation in the same way, and therefore does not give the same meaning to their suicidal gesture. Thus, different types of suicides specific to SME owners-managers have been identified through Baechler’s typology.