On July 1, 2022, Carsten Rietmann successfully defended his dissertation on "Hidden Champions as a central element for the stabilization of rural areas in times of digitalization". The disputation was led by the chairman of the examination board Prof. Dr. Peter Dirksmeier. Prof. Dr. Ingo Liefner (first supervisor) and Prof. Dr. Stefan Hennemann (JLU Gießen, second supervisor) served as additional examiners. The cumulative dissertation examines the digitalization of Hidden Champions, unknown global market leaders, in rural areas and their contribution to digitization-related regional development. In addition to the company's internal handling of digitization, the thesis focuses in particular on the integration into regional innovation systems and the corporate regional engagement of this firm type.
The dissertation is available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.15488/12316
