Bachelor Thesis from the year 2014 in the subject Business economics - Miscellaneous, grade: 2,0, University of Cooperative Education Stuttgart, course: BWL - International Business, language: English, abstract: In this thesis, the author approaches multi-channel distribution within the age of the digital customer, centralizing a strategic adoption in the German automotive industry. By applying a qualitative empirical research design, he determines key success factors and imperatives for building an effective digital business strategy in the German automotive industry and discloses general factors for success to thrive a multi-channel business. The choice of journals was based on the journal ranking at (status as of: 21.01.2014), whereas the author's focus were highly ranked journals from diverse sources within the areas (1) Business Strategy (Strategy and Digital Business Strategy), (2) Marketing (Multi-Channel Marketing), (3) E-Commerce (E-Commerce and E-Commerce Strategy) and (4) Innovation management (Business Model Innovation). The "Journal of Marketing", "Harvard Business Review", "International Journal of Electronic and Commerce", "European Management Journal" and "MIS Quarterly" depict the preferential literature source. Furthermore, guideline interviews with industry and solution experts (n = 4) of International Machines Corporation (IBM) have been executed. Having a clear vision across all functions and effective communica...