Determinants of perceived success in management consulting

Abstract

Purpose This paper aims to conceptualize perceived management consulting success, derive relevant success factors based on principal-agent theory and the resource-based view as well as investigate the particular factors’ influence. Management consulting has become important for improving the competitiveness of a variety of firms. Surprisingly, there is little empirical evidence clarifying what constitutes a successful management consulting project. Design/methodology/approach The authors conduct a survey to empirically investigate the hypotheses. They develop the survey instrument through a literature review, expert interviews, a pre-test and an item-sorting test. To analyze the data from 348 management consultants, the authors apply structural equation modeling. Additionally, they choose a triangulation approach by asking secondary informants about the originally surveyed consultants’ responses. Findings Initially, the authors develop the second-order construct perceived management consulting success, consisting of the factors compliance with budget and schedule, degree of target achievement, profitability as well as expansion and extension. Additionally, they develop an understanding of management consulting’s success factors. In this regard, five of six factors show a significant impact on perceived management consulting success. Originality/value According to the results, the factor intensity of collaboration is of highest importance for perceived management consulting success. Further, the factors common vision, consultant expertise and top management support show comparably strong significant influences. Yet, the authors have to reject the hypothesis about trust. This result conveys the complicacy of the consultant–client relationship and shows that building a trustful relationship between both parties is hard to accomplish.

What Makes Fractional CIO Engagements in SMEs Successful? – A Research Framework

“…The study identifies six dimensions of engagement success: consultant's recommendation, client learning, and consultant performance. Bronnenmayer et al [46] find that from the consultants' viewpoint, the factors intensity of collaboration, common vision, consultant expertise, and top management support significantly influence perceived engagement success.…”

A vezetési tanácsadói szerepek változása. Szakirodalmi kitekintés és empirikus eredmények

“…Tanulmányok vizsgálták a tanácsadói projektek sikerkritériumait (pl. : Appelbaum & Steed, 2005;Bronnenmayer, Wirtz & Göttel, 2016a, 2016b, az ügyfél-elégedettséget meghatározó főbb faktorokat (Roodhooft & Van den Abbeele, 2006) és tanácsadási szolgáltatásminőség dimenziókat (Ehrhardt & Nippa, 2005, Smith 2002, Wang, Shieh, & Hsiao, 2005, amely kutatások empirikus eredményekkel bővítették a vezetési tanácsadási szakirodalom ismeretanyagát.…”

Aristotle and the Management Consultants: Shooting for Ethical Practice

“…It is without question that management consultancy is a business, and management consultants have to take a commercial approach to their work if they are to stay in business (Kipping and Clark 2012). Yet many writers have suggested that management consultants tend to be overfond of money (Bronnenmayer and Wirtz 2016). For example, they are often perceived to be working towards a follow-on contract with their clients as soon as they have been appointed, and as angling their advice so as to please those managers within their client organisations who can give them business (Bloch 1998;Sturdy et al 2009).…”