BERLIN, June 7 (Xinhua) -- When it comes to digital maturity, companies in Germany are increasingly at a disadvantage compared to the international competition, a study by the German branch of Boston Consulting Group (BCG) warned on Thursday.

The findings were based on a survey of 1,900 companies from Germany, France, the United States and the United Kingdom.

In 2017, over a third of German companies (36 percent) were ranked in the weakest group of "stragglers" by BCG in the management consultancy's Digital Acceleration Index (DAI). A total of 45 percent were placed in the international mid-field, while only 5 percent were considered to have the most advanced digital maturity.

As a consequence, Germany's corporate performance declined significantly on an annual basis with the number of companies lagging behind rising by 6 percentage points and that of mid-field contenders increasing by 5 percentage points.

"The mid-field of companies that still have a real chance to catch up to the digital leaders is eroding," a statement by Michael Grebe, BCG senior partner and technology expert, read.

Companies considered part of the elite group in the study responded that they had invested more than 5 percent of their operating cost in digitalization and information technology (IT), employed more than 10 percent of "digitally competent" members of staff, and cultivated a "digital culture" in 2017. U.S.-based companies did particularly well across these indicators, with a rising share of digital leaders (25 percent of total) and falling share of stragglers (31 percent of the total).

BCG argued that companies with high levels of digital maturity were also more successful in growing market share in their respective industries. The Duesseldorf-based consultants cited the example of digital leaders in the telecommunications sector who had increased market share by 7 percent on average between 2012 and 2017.

Commenting on the study, BCG consultant Christoph Gauger predicted that the gap between digital leaders and stragglers would only widen in the years to come. Companies in the lower tier of the ranking faced "double pressure" according to Gauger, from traditional competitors who were adapting to technology faster on the one hand, and from disruptive digital start-ups on the other.

Gauger recommended companies with low digital maturity to act fast to put the necessary IT framework in place. "Only then will companies succeed in sustainably raising their competitiveness with data-analytics, the creation of digital platforms, and artificial intelligence," the BCG consultant said.?