The digital transformation of management consulting companies: a qualitative comparative analysis of Romanian industry

Abstract

Digital transformation affects all industries. This study targets how management consulting companies address this phenomenon. Based on a survey of 30 Romanian management consulting companies and a qualitative comparative analysis, we model the relationship between management consulting companies’ current context (customers’ industries, internal and external triggers for digital transformation), the current state of digital transformation, and expected digital transformation. By considering managerial expectations importance in future decisions, and contingency theory for explaining the links between context, current state and expected digital transformation, different paths concerning digital transformation are identified at Romanian management consulting companies. For some of them, the combination of internal and external triggers and the existence of previous digital transformation activities led to increases in the recognized importance of digital transformation in future business models and to newer business services (digital strategy). For others, which do not have powerful external triggers, digital transformation is associated with internal efficiency–related triggers, and it targets only improvements in existing business models due to technology adoption (technology strategy). A small number of management consulting companies do not expect digital transformation to have a large impact on their future business model, because of either the lack of external triggers to do so or the absence of previous digital transformation activities. This research demonstrates the contingency and evolutionary nature of the digital transformation process, in which specific combinations between internal and external triggers can explain the expectations of management consulting companies’ managers about digital transformation.

Characterising the digital transformation of IT consulting services–Results from a systematic mapping study

“…In 13 out of 20 papers, the authors touch the topic of digitalised consulting business models [2,11,16,17,31,32,34,37,38,40,41]. The term 'software-defined business' [31] reflects that discussion well, as it shows that digital business models directly rely on information technology [16,31,38,40,41] and might be modelled in software.…”

“…Other authors indicate the potential of digital IT consulting platforms to streamline the collaboration of multiple actors who contribute to the service provisioning in the sense of crowd-based services [2,11,38,39] and the mediation of resources like people and products [11]. Furthermore, the authors of four other papers [11,17,36,37] emphasise the role of digital IT consulting platforms as the basis for mobile IT consulting scenarios.…”

“…In any case, the authors of the papers we have selected in this MS argue that the digitisation of consulting is an iterative process [21,37]. Helmer et al propose an 'digital innovation process for services' based on the analysis of 25 concepts, that could be helpful also for the digitalisation of IT consulting services [21].…”

Change management for sustainable business development in the conditions of pandemic and COVID-19 crisis: Сase experience of Russia and France

“…Научнотехнический прогресс (Kraus, Durst, Ferreira, Kailer, Wein mann, 2022;Lee, Trappey, Liu, Mo & Desouza, 2022) Изменение рыночной среды Основа управления изменениями Технологическая модернизация бизнеса (Ari, Altinay, Altinay, Dagli, Ari, 2022;Ko, Fehér, Kovacs, Mitev & Szab, 2022) Корпоративная социальная ответственность Ключевой фактор производства, трансформация этого фактора при управлении изменениями Технология, внедряются технологические инновации с высокой капиталоемкостью (Creazza, Colicchia, Spiezia, Dallari, 2022;Kafel & Rogala, 2022) Человеческие и особенно интеллектуальные ресурсы, внедряются социальные инновации с низкой капиталоемкостью Вклад управления изменениями в устойчивость бизнеса Производственная мощность и эффективность производства наращиваются через автоматизацию и переход к «умным» производственным системам (Bellantuono, Nuzzi, Pontrandolfo, Scozzi, 2021;de Bem Machado, Secinaro, Calandra & Lanzalonga, 2022) Развитие человеческого потенциала и его раскрытие (рост производительности труда), создание знаниеёмких рабочих мест Страны, в которых реализуется подход Румыния, Португалия, Малайзия, Индия и Саудовская Аравия (Crișan, Stanca, 2021;Geada, 2021;Ghavifekr, Fung, 2021;Singh, Bashir & Ahmad, 2021) Россия и Франция Источник: разработано и составлено авторами.…”

“…При изучении опыта ведения бизнеса в условиях пандемии и кризиса COVID-19 отдельного внимания заслуживает опыт России и Франции. Цифровая экономика, и в частности электронное правительство и электронная торговля, играет важную роль в экономическом кризис-менеджменте и риск-менеджменте бизнеса в условиях пандемии и кризиса COVID-19 в качестве примеров приводятся Румыния (Crișan & Stanca, 2021), Португалия (Geada, 2021), Малайзия (Ghavifekr & Fung, 2021), Индия и Саудовская Аравия (Singh, Bashir & Ahmad, 2021).…”