Digitalization is one of the biggest challenges of the 21st Century. In Germany, the concept of Industry 4.0 goes back to the high-tech strategy of the Federal Government and describes the interlocking of industrial production with the latest information and communication technology. In the intelligent factory, intelligent and networked machines will operate, decide and optimize largely autonomously in cooperation with humans. For China, the German concept Industry 4.0 is a strategic source of inspiration. Among other things, it was a model for the current Chinese innovation and industrial policy strategy Made in China 2025. This book is looking into different aspects of digitalization. Part 1 presents the concept of Industry 4.0, both, from the German and the Chinese perspective. Part 2 describes the Chinese innovation concept Made in China 2025 within different economic sectors in China and discusses to what extent Industry 4.0 might be considered its role model. Part 3 presents the opportunities and challenges of digitalization and big data from a regional perspective. Part 4 analyses the special aspect of the impacts of digitalization for the banking sector and international trade cooperation. Finally, Part 5 focuses on digitalization and innovation considering small and medium-sized companies in particular.

Andreas Oberheitmann is professor of business administration and international management at FOM University of Applied Sciences and its German-Sino School of Business and Technology respectively, and furthermore functions as scientific director of the German-Sino Competence Center of Business & Technology (KCBT). He is a member of the editorial board of the American Journal of Climate Change and was expert reviewer for the fifth and sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Working Group III. Between 2007 and 2013, he was international director of the Research Center for International Environmental Policy (RCIEP) and visiting professor at the School of Environment of Tsinghua University in Beijing. Between 1993 and 2015, he was senior research fellow at the RWI - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research, Essen. Andreas Oberheitmann conducted various studies and projects on different energy and environmental policy issues in China, including climate change mitigation in the building sector (CDM, P-CDM, sectoral approaches), low carbon economy in cities, sustainable development, post Kyoto issues, climate change adaptation, international trade issues, the introduction of competition in the power sector in China, supply and demand trends of mineral resources, etc.Thomas Heupel is professor of business administration, with a focus on cost accounting and controlling. Since 2009 he has been vice rector of research at FOM University of Applied Sciences in Essen, Germany. His research focuses on the fields of behavioral economics, automotive industry management, demographic change, blue ocean strategy, management of SMEs and cost control. He is a member of several scientific institutions' advisory boards and editor of numerous academic books. He studied economics at the University of Siegen and subsequently worked as a research assistant at the IöB (Institut für ökologische Betriebswirtschaft) and managing director of the SMI (Siegener Mittelstandsinstitut) at the University of Siegen, Germany.Yang Junqing is professor of economics and vice president of Shanxi University of Finance & Economics in Shanxi Province, China. His research fields include labor economics, human resources management, labor relation, human capital theory and rural industrialization as well as urbanization in China. Wang Zhenlin is professor of crop science and vice president of Shandong Agricultural University in Shandong, China. His research fields include, amongst others, nutritional characteristics and physiological and biochemical processes of high-yield and high-quality in crops respectively, the effect mechanism of water utilization rule of high-yielding and high-quality cultivation of crops, the coupling effects of cultivar-fertilizer-water and effects on crop yield and quality, physiological and biochemical processes of organic matter metabolism of crop and regulation, as well as the theoretical and technical approaches of high-yield and high-quality cultivation of crops.