IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/vrs/mancon/v6y2023i2p104-110n7.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Researching Practice Areas of Consultancy Firms

Author

Listed:
  • Williams Christopher

    (University of York England UK)

  • van Triest Sander

    (Amsterdam Business School Amsterdam Netherlands)

Abstract

We reflect on a multi-year study of practice areas within professional service firms that has resulted in impact in various ways, including research publications, class teaching, and industry dissemination. We describe the challenges in conducting academic research at the practice area level, rather than the firm level. These challenges are grouped into two camps: fieldwork challenges and conceptual challenges. While we navigated these during our project in order to achieve our goals, we believe more work needs to be done at the practice area level within the consultancy industry, especially as this unit of analysis is affected by trends in AI and ESG that were not so prominent 20 years ago. We suggest one way forward will be to utilize collaborative systems approaches through a holistic stance, rather than focus on narrow sets of variables in a reductionist stance.

Suggested Citation

  • Williams Christopher & van Triest Sander, 2023. "Researching Practice Areas of Consultancy Firms," Management Consulting Journal, Sciendo, vol. 6(2), pages 104-110, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:vrs:mancon:v:6:y:2023:i:2:p:104-110:n:7
    DOI: 10.2478/mcj-2023-0012
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.2478/mcj-2023-0012
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.2478/mcj-2023-0012?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Namrata Malhotra & Timothy Morris, 2009. "Heterogeneity in Professional Service Firms," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(6), pages 895-922, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Pantic-Dragisic, Svjetlana & Söderlund, Jonas, 2020. "Swift transition and knowledge cycling: Key capabilities for successful technical and engineering consulting?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(1).
    2. Brock, David M. & Hydle, Katja Maria, 2018. "Transnationality – Sharpening the Integration-Responsiveness vision in global professional firms," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 117-124.
    3. Knechel, W. Robert & Thomas, Edward & Driskill, Matthew, 2020. "Understanding financial auditing from a service perspective," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    4. Villani, Elisa & Linder, Christian & Lechner, Christian & Muller, Lina, 2021. "How do non-innovative firms start innovation and build legitimacy? The case of professional service firms," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 137(C), pages 614-625.
    5. Jain, Naveen Kumar & Celo, Sokol & Kumar, Vikas, 2019. "Internationalization speed, resources and performance: Evidence from Indian software industry," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 26-37.
    6. Steven J. Kahl & Brayden G. King & Greg Liegel, 2016. "Occupational Survival Through Field-Level Task Integration: Systems Men, Production Planners, and the Computer, 1940s–1990s," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 27(5), pages 1084-1107, October.
    7. Gegužytė Gintarė & Bagdonienė Liudmila, 2021. "Value Co-Creation in Engineering Service Innovation: Resources and Capabilities Perspectives," Journal of Management and Business Administration. Central Europe, Sciendo, vol. 29(4), pages 91-123, December.
    8. Matthias Kipping & Ian Kirkpatrick, 2013. "Alternative Pathways of Change in Professional Services Firms: The Case of Management Consulting," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(5), pages 777-807, July.
    9. Brock, David M. & Saks, Mike, 2016. "Professions and organizations: A European perspective," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 1-6.
    10. William H. Starbuck, 2010. "What Makes a Paper Influential and Frequently Cited?," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(7), pages 1394-1404, November.
    11. Na Fu & Patrick C Flood & Denise M Rousseau & Tim Morris & Murray Johnstone, 2023. "When are clients helpful? Capitalising on client involvement in professional service delivery," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 18(2), pages 1-21, February.
    12. Pina, Katia & Tether, Bruce S., 2016. "Towards understanding variety in knowledge intensive business services by distinguishing their knowledge bases," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(2), pages 401-413.
    13. Gabriel Sorin STROE, 2014. "Are The Professional Engineering Services Threatened By Substitutes?," Risk in Contemporary Economy, "Dunarea de Jos" University of Galati, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, pages 160-169.
    14. Carnevale, Marina & Nachum, Lilac & Korn, Helaine, 2017. "Why does MNE performance vary across countries?," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 26(6), pages 1196-1207.
    15. John Kenneth Mawdsley & Lionel Paolella & Rodolphe Durand, 2023. "A rivalry‐based theory of gender diversity," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(5), pages 1254-1291, May.
    16. Peiker Wolfdietrich & Pflanz Kai & Kujath Hans Joachim & Kulke Elmar, 2012. "The heterogeneity of internationalisation in knowledge intensive business services," ZFW – Advances in Economic Geography, De Gruyter, vol. 56(1-2), pages 209-225, October.
    17. Séverine Ventolini & Barthélemy Chollet & Gazi Islam, 2021. "Everybody's looking for something: Developmental networks as subjective career relationships," Grenoble Ecole de Management (Post-Print) hal-03364142, HAL.
    18. Przemyslaw Hensel, 2013. "Doradztwo jako temat badan naukowych – przegl¹d wspolczesnej literatury. (Consulting as a subject of study – a review of a recent literature.)," Problemy Zarzadzania, University of Warsaw, Faculty of Management, vol. 11(43), pages 9-24.
    19. Yuliani Suseno & Ashly H. Pinnington, 2018. "Building social capital and human capital for internationalization: The role of network ties and knowledge resources," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 35(4), pages 1081-1106, December.
    20. Peng Gao & Dan He & Zhijing Sun & Yuemin Ning, 2020. "Characterizing functionally integrated regions in the Central Yangtze River Megaregion from a city‐network perspective," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(3), pages 1357-1379, September.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:vrs:mancon:v:6:y:2023:i:2:p:104-110:n:7. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Peter Golla (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.sciendo.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.