That's too simple. What you are describing, may be a symptom, but not the cause of issues withing germany's IT-industry. As the article states, 'hierarchical' structures are still a common thing in german companies. On the other hand, lots of those companies are much older than Google for example. They've been successful with their model for decades. Also germany is a big enough market for itself; the need to compete internationally is not strong (yet).

And: conservatism isn't bad per se. For many people it means a kind of safety and familarity. Maybe for most folks, it's more important to have a good dayjob that supports their families, than to follow the "arrogant academic" into unkown waters...

Such thinking is all over Europe. Sweden and the Netherlands as well, yet both do much better in the digital economy.

I think as the article points out the problem is more of the rigid and hierarchical business culture of Germany.

Also Germans are much less international. The dutch and nordics are much much more tuned into the anglo-saxon world were the majority of software innovation happens.

That is a function of being small countries who always had to look outwards and learn other languages and cultures. Germans seem far more insular to me.

Less international? I live in north germany. A few kilometers away we have Airbus (which makes it the third largest aircraft manufacturing plant in the world), one of the largest ports in the world, ... there are even weekly cargo trains going to China. Just recently a 1 billion research laser has begun operation - only possible to build with international cooperation.

If you look at the German Mittelstand, you can find 1000+ small and medium enterprises who have world wide business from rural areas.

I think that TV has a big role in this. German TV dubs everything into German, Dutch TV just adds subtitles to foreign programmes.