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In recent decades, the influence of consultants in our economy has increased continuously. Many large client organizations regularly involve consultancies in managerial projects. At the same time, clients have become more discerning in how they involve these advisors. They have gained experience in dealing with consultants. In addition, a larger spectrum of alternatives for the execution of projects, such as external consultants, in-house consultants and internal project teams is available to them. Given these contractual choices and the heavily debated use of consultants, the question arises why managers choose to involve consultants in their project activities and how they structure the contractual relationship with them. Sandra Niewiem provides an empirical examination of the contractual relationship between clients and consultants on the basis of the transaction cost economic (TCE) theory of vertical integration. The comparative contracting perspective is the traditional focus of TCE research. Despite offering a fundament of concepts and empirical evidence, TCE has not yet been applied to consulting settings. Sandra Niewiem's work includes a meta-review of the empirical literature on TCE, which, with a selection of 160 studies, is the largest and most comprehensive review ofTCE literature ever conducted.
Inhaltsverzeichnis
1 Introduction.- 1.1 Background and motivation for this study.- 1.2 Purpose of the thesis.- 1.3 Research approach.- 1.4 Definitions and perspective of analysis.- 1.5 Structure of the thesis.- 2 The consultant-client relationship from a transaction cost economic perspective.- 2.1 Introduction.- 2.2 The contractual relationship between clients and consultants.- 2.3 Selection of a theoretical basis for this study.- 2.4 The transaction cost economic theory of vertical integration.- 2.5 Transaction cost economic empirical evidence - a meta-review.- 2.6 Hypotheses.- 2.7 Summary.- 3 Empirical approach.- 3.1 Introduction.- 3.2 General research approach.- 3.3 Unit of analysis.- 3.4 Measures and operationalization.- 3.5 Data collection.- 3.6 Analytical method.- 3.7 Summary.- 4 Results.- 4.1 Overview.- 4.2 Conceptual analysis.- 4.3 Relational analysis.- 5 Synopsis and implications.- 5.1 Overall summary.- 5.2 Theoretical implications.- 6 Concluding remarks.- 6.1 The research questions revisited.- 6.2 Limitations of this study and options for future research.- 6.3 Conclusion and outlook.- References.
Über den Autor / die Autorin
Dr. Sandra Niewiem promovierte bei Prof. Dr. Jean-Paul Thommen am Department "International Management and Consulting" an der European Business School, Schloß Reichartshausen. Sie ist als Unternehmensberaterin in den Bereichen Strategie und Organisation tätig.
Prof. Dr. Jean-Paul Thommen ist Inhaber des Lehrstuhls für Allgemeine Betriebswirtschaftslehre, mit den Schwerpunkten Personal und Organisation, an der European Business School (ebs), Schloß Reichartshausen, sowie Dozent an den Universitäten St. Gallen und Zürich.
Zusammenfassung
In recent decades, the influence of consultants in our economy has increased continuously. Many large client organizations regularly involve consultancies in managerial projects. At the same time, clients have become more discerning in how they involve these advisors. They have gained experience in dealing with consultants. In addition, a larger spectrum of alternatives for the execution of projects, such as external consultants, in-house consultants and internal project teams is available to them. Given these contractual choices and the heavily debated use of consultants, the question arises why managers choose to involve consultants in their project activities and how they structure the contractual relationship with them. Sandra Niewiem provides an empirical examination of the contractual relationship between clients and consultants on the basis of the transaction cost economic (TCE) theory of vertical integration. The comparative contracting perspective is the traditional focus of TCE research. Despite offering a fundament of concepts and empirical evidence, TCE has not yet been applied to consulting settings. Sandra Niewiem's work includes a meta-review of the empirical literature on TCE, which, with a selection of 160 studies, is the largest and most comprehensive review ofTCE literature ever conducted.
