Nearly two years after the official completion of the multi-year, interdisciplinary research project on “Rural Areas in the Age of Digitalization,” funded by the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) as part of the Federal Program for Rural Development and Regional Value Creation (BULEplus), an edited volume was published containing the key findings and recommendations of the finalized research project “Hidden Champions as a central element for the stabilization of rural areas in times of digitalization” (HiDi) in the form of a working paper.
The joint research project conducted by the Institute for Economic and Cultural Geography (Ingo Liefner, Carsten Rietmann, Leon Worbs) and the Institute of Geography at Justus Liebig University Gießen (Stefan Hennemann, Lisa Zirbes) aimed to contribute to a deeper understanding of the achievements and contributions of Hidden Champions as medium-sized, export-oriented global market leaders in the context of digitalization and the currently visible instabilities in rural areas. Against this background, the published working paper provides a broad public with access to research findings on the contribution of Hidden Champions to the stabilization and socio-economic development of rural areas in times of digitalization. The contribution presents a new methodological procedure for identifying German Hidden Champions as well as strategies for consolidating and increasing the competitiveness of these medium-sized companies, as well as a new regional typology of municipalities that explicitly takes into account the presence of this type of company. In addition to presenting these results and key learnings, the paper also outlines recommendations for action, which have been documented in more detail in the project white paper published in 2024.
The working paper can be downloaded directly and openly from the BULEplus website (in German language).
Liefner, I.; Hennemann, S.; Rietmann, C.; Worbs, L. & Zirbes, L. (2025): Hidden Champions als zentrales Element der Stabilisierung ländlicher Regionen in Zeiten der Digitalisierung. In Bundesministerium für Ernährung und Landwirtschaft (BMEL) (Hrsg.), Ländliche Räume in Zeiten der Digitalisierung. Sammelband zur Forschungsförderungsmaßnahme des BULEplus – Projektergebnisse und Empfehlungen (S. 23-38). Berlin: BMEL.
