Does Digitization Matter? Reflections on a Possible Transformation of the Consulting Business

Deelmann, Thomas

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-70491-3_3

Cited by 12 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 2 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…In the management consulting industry, the digital transformation level is surprisingly low (Greff and Werth 2016 ), which is hard to explain considering that management consulting companies are recognized for their evangelist role in their customers’ business transformation (Llewellyn 2017 ). The research on management consulting companies digital transformation is also at an incipient phase (Seifert and Nissen 2018 ), and the existing research investigates a few narrow topics, such as the forms of the adopted IT and how they affect the nature of consulting (Deelmann 2018 ). Research in the management consulting field in general lags development of the industry (Mosonyi et al 2020 ).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Christensen et al ( 2013 ) show that management consulting is currently in a disruption phase, in which the early signs include new customer demand for the use of new technologies such as automation and the use of databases and the blurring of boundaries between professional services. Similarly, Deelmann ( 2018 ) offer evidence that digitization (which is used by the author as a synonym for digitalization) affects the market by influencing management consulting companies’ efficiency and their business models, including automation of consulting services. Llewellyn ( 2017 ) demonstrates that digitalization has “democratized” consulting by introducing new consulting models (i.e., digital associate–based consulting, which allows customers to handpick consultants from a digital pool, or peer-to-peer online consulting).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Strategies such as rapid IT adoption (Curuksu 2018), can determine whether management consulting companies have a rapid transformation or take slower approaches. These triggers are recognized as influencing the framing conditions of management consulting companies' clients, overall market development, and the consulting services model provided by management consulting companies (Deelmann 2018). Three variables are used for the second dimension of the model, the current state of digital transformation: the current role played in the existing business model by IT, its role in companies' operations, and the technologies currently used by the companies.…”

Section: The Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The second variable measures expectations of changes in business models due to digital transformation. Many prior papers have described these changes (Christensen et al 2013;Parakala 2015;Greff and Werth 2016;Deelmann 2018). Another variable describes potential services considered by management consulting companies to be launched in the future as digital technologies are recognized by literature to cause the increasing adoption of multiple business models rather than replacing the previous ones (Li 2020).…”

Section: The Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 4 more Smart Citations

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

Crișan

Stanca

2021

Inf Syst E-Bus Manage

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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.

show abstract