In danger of being left behind? – Media narratives of the digital transformation in the German Mittelstand

Figures & data

Table 1. Tonality of media reporting on digital transformation in German media.

Category LIWC-2015, 2022	Reference Corpus NY Times	Digital Transformation DT minor focus corpus		Digital Transformation DT main focus corpus
	Mean	Mean	SD	Mean	SD
N		154		89
Tone ^a	43.61	58.54	27.01	64.88	25.60
Drivers	7.60	9.15	2.49	9.83	3.12
Affiliation	1.69	1.36	0.90	1.77	1.78
Achievement	1.82	4.82	1.78	5.14	1.87
Power	3.62	2.69	1.18	2.55	1.16
Reward	1.07	0.80	0.65	0.87	1.01
Risk	0.56	0.68	0.50	0.76	1.00
Technology ^b	0.46	0.37	0.52	0.69	0.66

N = 243. ^a Percentage of total words within text. Percentage below 50 = more negative emotional tone. ^b Reference LIWC 2022.

Table 2. Framing the digital transformation.

Negative narrative
Left behind	Title: The world is not waiting for Germany. German Chancellor Angela Merkel calls on business not to be left behind digitally and stresses the importance of fast data networks (Süddeutsche Zeitung, June 14, 2017). Merkel warns the business community not to be left behind digitally. Merkel stressed the importance of the expansion of fast data networks (‘The gigabit connection is necessary’) which will facilitate great opportunities for value creation. According to the Chancellor’s view, it is particularly important that small and medium-sized enterprises exploit the potential of the multitude of data that are generated. She warns ‘if the firms did not manage it, large platforms would squeeze in between them and their customers’. (…) ‘We must now put all our faith in the digital card’ [Wir müssen jetzt alles auf die digitale Karte setzen], (…) the leading industries in Germany and Europe must be digitalized, just as the IT companies in Silicon Valley were digitalized in the USA. This process must move faster than before, and Germany should therefore ‘not sit back now’, demanded Thorsten Dirks [President of the industry association Bitkom].
Low digital maturity	Title: Germany is threatened by the digital divide. Government advisors warn of a growing divide in the German economy at the national IT summit. Small and medium-sized enterprises are in danger of losing out. There is a lack of insight, but also a lack of suitable specialists (Süddeutsche Zeitung, November 16, 2016). The resume based on a 50-page paper from the German Academy of Science and Engineering makes it unmistakably clear: The entire German economy must do a better job of adapting to radical change. (…) However, this insight has not yet reached everyone. (…) Mittelstand firms in particular run in danger of falling behind if they do not invest in more digitalization. Acatech President, government advisor and former SAP CEO Henning Kagermann tells the Süddeutsche Zeitung [media outlet] ‘If small and medium-sized enterprises lose touch, this will have drastic consequences. Many jobs depend on SMEs. We have more hidden champions than any other country in the world. If we leave small and medium-sized businesses behind in Industry 4.0, we will weaken our national economy’. (…) ‘SMEs have a lot of catching up to do in terms of digitalization, especially in Industry 4.0’, says the President of the Federal Association of SMEs, Mario Ohoven.
High-tech giants versus Mittelstand firms	Title: ‘Good but not good enough’. Henning Kagermann complains about shortcomings in the German economy (Süddeutsche Zeitung, September 01, 2014). Henning Kagermann mentions technological deficiencies and a lack of skilled employees, also criticizing that the German industry invests ‘too little and lives off its substance’ and Germany still has a backlog, especially in the commercialization of new ideas. For automakers, the former SAP CEO sees particular risks from Internet companies like Google.
Chance and change narrative
Strong industrial core	Title: Where are the German high-tech founders? (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, January 14, 2019). Ann-Kristin Achleitner (Holder of the Chair of Entrepreneurial of Entrepreneurial Finance at the Technical University of Munich, member of the Executive Board of acatech [German Academy of Science and Engineering], member of the supervisory boards of several DAX-listed companies) and Thomas Lange (economist and member of acatech) mention ‘from a German perspective, the greatest opportunities for digitalization lie in the area of the strong industrial core and in the B2B sector – keyword Industry 4.0. The future belongs to intelligent solutions based on the Internet of Data, Services and Things, as well as artificial intelligence applications in the sectors automotive, mechanical engineering, chemicals and and health care. (…) Regional innovation ecosystems are a good breeding ground for high-tech start-up firms. They link start-up firms, established companies, scientific institutions and capital providers in the environment of promising future technologies and exert a strong pull – on capital and talent’.
Backbone of economy	Title: Let’s talk about the opportunities! (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, August 12, 2014). ‘No country in the world earns as much money with high-value technologies as Germany, and no country has such a well-developed domestic production with a strong industry and an anchored Mittelstand as a backbone. We have already succeeded once in taking over the technology leadership of a project of the century in a short time: the expansion of renewable energies with the help of the EEG. Renewable energies and efficiency technologies “made and designed in Germany”. (…) Becoming the green workbench for the world with intelligent solutions would be a worthwhile guiding idea for SMEs and industry!’ (…) Here sit the thinkers and tinkerers whose know-how is more in demand than ever before’.
Future-oriented narrative
Roadmap	Title: Roadmap for the digital transformation (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, October 22, 2015). Prof Dr.-Ing. Werner Bick presents a roadmap for the digital transformation: ‘Many innovative companies have now established the function of an “innovation scout”. These “idea profilers” build up a technology radar: They observe and cluster social, economic, ecological or technological developments outside and within their own organization and thus lay the foundation for a sustainable technology strategy (…) For the first time in their history, many companies are able to sell their customers not products, but solutions to complex issues. The platform for this is the Internet of Things, the growing together of industries in a global “Cloud of Everything”’.
Future work	Title: Every manhole cover will radio the water level on the road. Bitkom President Thorsten Dirks on broadband internet and gravel roads as well as robots and brain workers (Berliner Zeitung, August 22, 2015). ‘The future is coming faster than many believe, says Thorsten Dirks. He is convinced that society will change fundamentally in the next few years as part of a comprehensive digital transformation. That’s why the president of the high-tech association Bitkom advocates developing concepts for lifelong learning. (…) I’ll be honest: Germany may be in the lead in Europe, but on a global scale it’s only good enough for midfield at best. The goal must be a place in the top group’.
Myths/Panacea	Title: Gabriel’s new world. The Federal Minister for Economy and Energy presents his ‘Digital Strategy 2025’: Germany is to become the most modern industrial location in the world. A future investment fund worth billions for rural areas is supposed to help (Süddeutsche Zeitung, March 14, 2016). ‘Some representatives of the coalition even sneer at the ‘Holy Quadruplicity’ which is blocking each other more than it is finally tackling things together. (…) ‘Without faster Internet connections, everything is just smoke and mirrors, says Gabriel’s man Matthias Machnig. (…) Gabriel is also swearing [einschwören] the German business to engage with the new technologies. To this end, among other things, young, innovative companies (start-up firms) are to be relieved of unnecessary bureaucracy. For the growth phase of the companies, he says, the government must enable more venture capital. Gabriel wants to initiate nothing less than “a new start-up era” through numerous state support funds, start-up platforms and subsidies. (…) Particular attention is to be paid to small and medium-sized enterprises and the skilled trades. Gabriel is therefore calling for a digitalization offensive for SMEs. This is intended to provide companies with targeted incentives to invest in digital transformation. Accordingly, the volume of the program will be around one billion euros. The aim is to promote the development of new internet-based platforms and business models and to promote the European networking of companies. A “House of Digitalization” for SMEs is to be built in Berlin, where changing exhibitions will showcase what is possible and feasible with the new technologies’.
Positive narrative
Ecosystem	Title: Example region for digitalization. (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, November 25, 2018). The region of South Westphalia has only existed since 2007 as a result of the structural merger of five counties in the southern part of Westphalia. Statistically it is one of the leading industrial regions in Germany. In North Rhine Westphalia, South Westphalia is at the top. More than 150 world market leaders have their headquarters there. With the orientation of the Regionale 2025, South Westphalia is also striving to play a pioneering role in digitalization. Max Thinius mentions that ‘the digitalization potential is much greater in rural areas than in the metropolises. (…) While many universities are still considering how to integrate artificial intelligence (AI) into their teaching, AI is already a topic in almost all degree programs at the University of Applied Sciences Südwestfalen’.
Rebel	Title: I am an atypical boss – Arnd von Wedemeyer, founder of notebooksbilliger.de, tells how he became Germany’s largest electronics mail order company. He talks about his relationship with employees and why you can’t study entrepreneurship (Süddeutsche Zeitung, October 1, 2018). ‘I had designed a logo and placed ads in a paper at home in Wülfrath. Then the first corporate customer came and wanted me to build him a network out of seven PCs and software to go with it. In retrospect, I’m surprised, because they made the weal and woe of their company dependent on a crazy guy in a child’s room with psychedelic carpeting. (…) I had to work at the counter. During the breaks, I continued my computer trading, phoning around on my B-net phone. I had gotten permission for that, but there were still problems. My dream was to go to South America and work for the bank there. But at the bank they told me to do a few years of counter service first. That’s when I quit. (…) During that time, I slept on a mattress in the back room of the store and made sure that nothing was invested until the account was in the black. I always get pitying looks when I tell people that, but actually it was actually great. I got up, worked, had the shortest route. That went on for two years. (…) Today I’m an atypical boss. I like working with people who do things well – then I’m relaxed and don’t have to constantly convince myself that they’re actually doing it. I’m also insanely impatient and erratic. I want to shout one idea at people, they shout another back at me, and then we get to work. Anything that takes longer leads to the fact that I’ve already started or even finished something, and no one knows what I’ve done. This way of working is not good for a corporation. And I have struggled for years, to have conversations with employees, to tell them why I think they did something well or badly’.

All headlines and quotes translated by authors.

Table 3. Leading metaphors of digital transformation per narrative.

Negative narrative
Person and embodiment: Knowledge and intelligence	Person and embodiment: health and illness	Landscape and nature	Sports and military	Space and place	Movement
blue-eyed, naïve, passive, not smart enough, not good enough, social network, say goodbye to Brockhaus thinking, bad marks, modern intranet – database, purchased knowledge, intelligent control units with digital interface	digital vital signs, mortal danger, dying, almost dead, weak points and open flanks, weak productivity gains	digital cloud, cloud computing, analog world, uncontrollable wave, wave of digitization, digital channels, resurgence, customer base, gaia-x	sharp sword, fight, attack, war, digital units, conflict fields, geostrategic rivals, digitalization changes economic rules, old apparatus trains and evaluates individual performances, second class, control, diverging power asymmetries, global digitization race	innovation country, stagnation country, Autoland Germany, smart regions	left behind, overtaken by market, keep pace with the competition or set the pace for development
Chance-challenge narrative
Person and embodiment: knowledge and intelligence		Landscape and nature	Sports and military	Movement	Crafts
digital superiority, smart machines, programs are reading		regional innovation ecosystems are a good breeding ground for high-tech start-up firms	ruler of a new global word, ‘strengthening inclusion: companies, and indeed the market economy system as such, are confronted with growing doubts about their legitimacy’, sprint, marathon, huge leaps in production	digital shift, new level of networking, the German government’s ‘Digital Agenda’ is on the right track, digitization often takes place in small leaps, but in large leaps as well	job engine, recoin for upheaval, digital tools, digital stooge, green workbench with intelligent solutions, data is crude oil: refining it and bringing it into the business process
Future-oriented narrative
Person and embodiment: knowledge and intelligence		Landscape and nature	Sports and military	Space and place	Myths
knowledge and intelligence of different network partners and external knowledge contributors, innovation scouts, idea profilers, partners, chewed knowledge		tailwind from cloud computing, global ‘Cloud of Everything’, valley hubs, centers	race, the midfield, the goal must be a place in the top group, 'we cannot prepare for the marathon for a long time, we now need to run faster!’	federal republic into a digitization republic, ‘Industry 4.0’ is also a contact point, European data space, digital ecosystems, new world	‘Holy Quadruplicity’, smoke and mirrors, swearing
Positive narrative
Landscape and nature			Space and place
cloud, in the land of 1000 mountains, digital channels, in this country, large cooperation of stars in the province			regional digital hubs, innovation laboratories, German Valley, excellent valley, digital ecosystem

Translated by authors.