Between exploitation and control – Clients’ conceptions of the consultant-client relationship

During the past years, the use of management consultants has increased significantly, giving managers repeated experiences of both hiring and working with them. In an effort to understand the managers’ use of management consultants, this paper sets out to investigate managers’ conceptions of management consultants, as they are assumed to influence how consultants are used and managed. Based on the study of ten managers, four conceptions of management consultants, their roles and how they should be managed were identified, representing four different kinds of buyers of consulting services – the disappointed buyer, the trustful buyer, the strong buyer and the instrumental buyer. These conceptions and their relations to the three types of buyers found in the literature are discussed, showing that the instrumental buyer is a “new” type with no equivalent in the literature. The paper ends with a discussion of possible explanations for the distribution of the conceptions over the ten studied managers, where seven of them could be categorized as strong or instrumental buyers, and what implications this may have on how management consultants are used.Management Consulting; client; purchasing

The cultural embeddedness of professional service purchasing-A comparative study of German and Swedish companies

Research on professional service purchasing generally takes a culturally universalistic approach, implicitly assuming the generalizability of research findings and normative models to different cultural contexts. However, research in related disciplines points to the influence of national culture on managers' decisions, thereby questioning the culturally universalistic approach. The purpose of this paper is to explore differences in professional service purchasing in different cultural contexts. Based on a survey of large organizations, we analyze how the purchasing process for a specific type of professional services - management consulting services - is organized in two cultural contexts (i.e. Germany and Sweden). The results indicate that organizations in Germany and Sweden differ in the way they approach key aspects of the purchasing process. These differences are discussed in relation to two central cultural dimensions - uncertainty avoidance and masculinity-femininity - in which Germany and Sweden take very different positions. It is proposed that uncertainty avoidance mainly influences the first steps in the purchasing process (specify, select and contract) whereas masculinity-femininity mainly influences the remaining steps (order, expedite and evaluate). The paper contributes to the purchasing and supply management literature by empirically illustrating differences in purchasing practices in different cultural contexts and developing theory-driven propositions for the influence of national culture on the professional service purchasing process

“Get nothing wrong”: Perspectives on the functions and fallibilities of professionals and algorithmic technologies in law and justice

peer reviewed38th EGOS Colloquium 2022 Sub-theme 31: Imperfect Knowledge: Re-examining the Role of Experts and Expertise 7-9th July 2022, Vienna, Austria “Get nothing wrong”: perspectives on the functions and fallibilities of professionals and algorithmic technologies in law and justice Christophe Dubois (University of Liège) [email protected] James Faulconbridge (Lancaster University) [email protected] Frida Pemer (Stockholm School of Economics) [email protected] Caroline Ruiner (University of Hohenheim) [email protected] Aline P. Seepma (University of Groningen) [email protected] Tale Skjølsvik (Oslo Metropolitan University) [email protected] Martin Spring (Lancaster University) [email protected] Introduction In this paper, we explore questions about the definition and constitution of expertise and experts as algorithmic technologies impact professional work. It is the aim of this paper to analyse the effects the implementation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on professions, focusing on law and justice. We draw on Eyal’s (2019: 26) typology of different conceptions of expertise, and analyses that disaggregate expert work at the level of tasks (Sampson, 2020), to identify “what experts do”. This allows us to examine differing degrees and forms of expertise in different facets of expert work (Dreyfus and Dreyfus, 2005). Part of a professional logic is to “get nothing wrong”, yet the use of algorithmic technologies introduces new sources of imperfection, as well as revealing existing (human) ones. Based on the introduction of cases in law using algorithmic technologies, we propose a framework for understanding the different ways algorithmic technologies do and do not reconstitute the different roles and practices of professional experts

Adopt or Adapt? Unpacking the Role of Institutional Work Processes in the Implementation of New Regulations

Building on a longitudinal study of the implementation of a new regulation and a framework of institutional work, this article makes three contributions: first, it explains how nonpowerful regulatees, by engaging in mobilization and cultivation, can change the power balance in the field and adjust the regulation to their local setting. Second, it takes a processual view and develops a conceptual model of how the implementation process unfolds through four waves; initial impact, response, recovery, and stabilization. Third, it shows how the studied actors combine contradictory institutional logics to legitimize their practices and resolve institutional complexity. Thus, it adds new insights into how actors, by engaging in collective and discursive institutional work, can influence both the implementation process and the regulation itself

Purchasing Policy or Purchasing Police? The Influence of Institutional Logics and Power on Responses to Purchasing Formalization

Seeking to benefit from higher levels of purchasing maturity, many organizations strive to formalize their purchasing practices. Why these practices are not adopted by certain organizations or for certain types of purchases is less well understood , however . It has been argued that the purchasing of knowledge - intensive services is particularly difficult to formalize, but an in - depth understanding of the inter - and intra - organizational dynamics influencing this process is lacking. This study contributes to th e purchasing and supply management literature by providing a fine - grained understanding of how actors respond to formalization initiatives. Building on an exploratory interview methodology and using institutional logic and power theory as foundations, we s how that formalization initiatives lead to institutional complexity and conflicts. Sets of strategies and counterstrategies for how to deal with the complexity and conflicts are identified , and relational power is found to moderate which strategy is used b y the actors. Based on the empirical findings, a conceptual model is developed to describe the response process

Struggling to challenge an informal field order : Professional associations as standard-setters

In the last decades, the consulting industry has undergone major changes. The industry has grown rapidly, attracted many new players and the content of the service has expanded to include different types of services. In this changing field, actors such as professional associations, consultants and clients have sought to find ways of defining the boundaries and professional identities of consultants. In this paper, we explore the strategies used by professional associations to balance the demands of professionalization with the informal and elusive characteristics of the consulting field. Drawing on an extensive longitudinal field-study of seven self professional associations we describe and analyze obstacles faced and strategies applied when attempting to challenge this informal field order by way of standardization. The results indicate that the informal field order in the consulting industry is so strong that attempts of introducing more formal orders such as standards become a high-risk project for the professional associations, as it may cause them to lose legitimacy and members. As a consequence, the attempts of professionalization are adjusted to fit the norms in the informal field order rather than the other way around

The cues that matter: Screening for quality signals in the ex ante phase of buying professional services

Service quality has become a central driver of competitive advantage and value creation. However, due to information asymmetries, many clients find it difficult to assess the service providers' quality ex ante. Nonetheless, this assessment is important to understand, as it affects service provider selection and, thereby, the service delivery. In this paper, we aim to reduce the opacity of service quality by interviewing 51 clients of professional services. Building on an in-depth analysis and a framework of signaling and screening theory, we develop a taxonomy of the dimensions on which professional service quality builds and of the signals clients use to assess quality in the ex ante phase. We also identify two types of signals, qualifying signals and signals of excellence, and develop a conceptual model of the screening process. We conclude the paper by discussing the theoretical and practical implications of our results

The process of business model disruption in knowledge-intensive services: The case of Legal Tech

Disruptive technologies were introduced as a concept in the late 1990s, where the process of disruption was largely attributed to technological developments and the inertia of incumbents. Later scholars have emphasized the difference in technological and business model disruption, where recent scholars point to the integration of the two. Whereas technological disruption considers the substitution of user value as a result of a superior technology, business-model disruption is the discovery of a fundamentally different way of dealing with and offering value to the user compared to existing models. The process through which these dual disruption processes takes place at the same time has to a limited degree been researched. While past research has pointed to the role of first and second movers, limited work has been done in understanding how new business models disrupt industries. Past research further emphasizes product-based businesses in their exploration of disruption. The fourth industrial revolution implies considerable disruption in service and knowledge-based industries. The research presented here aims to address the process of this disruption. In particular, we study LegalTech and explore the business models of 400 start-ups based on Angel’s List – a list for start-ups and Angel investors – as well as articles on Legal Tech in the Factiva database. The context of law is interesting as it is characterized by a high level of regulation and institutionalization, which restricts and limits the opportunity for innovation. Still, alternative technology-based business models arise and survive. Based on inductive classification, the data reveals 3 main business models that target the existing law industry: platform, software and infrastructure. The research shows that these different business model contribute to disruption in different ways and based on different logics – illustrating how the application of different technologies in different business models impact disruption differently. In particular, the models emphasize ease of access, work process support and prevention. Each of the mechanisms and how these models impact incumbents are discussed in the paper. Thus, the paper develops and details existing disruption theory in enriching existing understanding of the process and models used. By doing this it adds insight of relevance to practitioners in start-ups and incumbent firms, as well as to policy makers