Christoph Lautsch Developing a Cross-Cultural Digital Leadership Maturity Model for German SMEs in China

About this book

German SMEs with Chinese subsidiaries are at a strategic crossroads. They must either opt for greater diversification outside China or intensify localization within China. The resulting localization wave 2.0 is increasing the postulation for a new leadership model that goes beyond traditional hierarchical models and addresses challenges, particularly in times of geopolitical tensions, derisking strategies, and discussions about decoupling, to ensure effective cross-location collaboration.

Digital leadership enables organizations to combine strategic flexibility with operational resilience. It supports faster decision-making, cross-border transparency, and data-driven coordination between headquarters and local subsidiaries. By leveraging digital tools and platforms, leaders can bridge physical distance, manage risks proactively, and maintain competitiveness despite increasing regulatory and market uncertainty.

This book merges the ambidexterity of the digital leadership concept with the cultural particularities in China and practicable aspects of the digital transformation. Based on grounded theory and experiences of China-experts, it guides through the development of the ‘Digital Leadership Model China’ and its managerial assessment tool.

Contents:

• Doing business in China: Sino-Chinese trade relations, options for investment in China, and challenges in times of derisking and decoupling
• Strategic choices in respect of management staffing: expat, chipat and Chinese manager
• Strategic leadership choices: leadership theories and a comparison of the German and Chinese leadership styles
• Digital leadership: introduction in this new leadership concept in VUCA environments and the influence of New Work, Big Data and AI
• Development of the ‘Digital Leadership Model China’ and its assessment tool to measure the ‘Digital Leadership Maturity Index China’