The German Mittelstand: antithesis to Silicon Valley entrepreneurship?

While internationally, the Mittelstand in Germany is admired and many countries try to emulate it, the current debate in Germany praises the Silicon Valley model of entrepreneurship, contrasting the Mittelstand as low growth, low-tech and non-innovative—in short, as a hindrance to Germany’s economic future. We therefore ask whether the Mittelstand actually is the antithesis to Silicon Valley entrepreneurship. We show that Mittelstand is about...