The Impact of CAD on Consulting Engineering Firms: A Survey of CAD Users and Non-users

Firms in the Canadian consulting engineering industry were interviewed and surveyed to determine the impact of computer-aided design and drafting (CAD) technology on the management of their firms, to document the current usage of CAD in Canadian consulting engineering, and to identify differences between user and non-user firms. Although CAD usage is still in its infancy in this industry, the technology was found to decrease employment within the industry at lower organisational levels but not to increase the firm's financial risk. Differences between users and non-users were found in their attitudes towards CAD as a tool in providing better client service and in the justification of the CAD investment.     

Chinese customers' loyalty to international consulting firms

International consulting firms enjoy higher customer loyalty than domestic firms in China. This paper investigates an influence model of customer loyalty on international consulting firms that goes beyond traditional research. Using a sample of 231 companies receiving service from international consulting firms in China, structural model testing validated the idea that choice based on service quality and belief caused by halo effect together lead to the customer loyalty on international consulting firms. International consulting companies have some born advantage doing business in emerging markets such as China due to Chinese customers' belief caused by halo effect.     

Exogenously driven CSR: insights from the consultants' perspective

This paper offers insights into corporate social responsibility (CSR) consulting in Greece. It sheds light on perspectives of how socially responsible business conduct is shaped by consultancies in a national business environment where such an essential aspect of organizational commitment and behavior exhibits comparatively little resonance among companies and is primarily induced by supranational and international policy schemes as well as foreign competitors. Drawing from long interviews with consulting professionals, we explore key topics: the domestic CSR (consulting) industry's characteristics, issues pertaining to the engagement with clients, the endorsement of CSR standards and initiatives, along with the consultants' perspective on institutional dynamics and their prospects with respect to the future of CSR in Greece. In this context, we aim to indicate trends on CSR implementation, pressures exerted on consultants, and managerial attitudes towards corporate responsibility. Our findings illustrate an oligopolistically structured market that encourages consultancies to compete intensely, the consultants' limited capacity to influence the business behavior of their clients, with the latter to adopt a promotional communicative approach to CSR, as well as a lack of institutional coordination and mechanisms that will materially embed social responsibility in the strategic management of business.     

Marketing and Professional Services: the Case of Consultancy Engineering

Professional services suffer from a dearth of literature on marketing, especially in New Zealand. Like other professioal services, consulting engineers have expressed particular concern on how to adapt to the present competitive environment. A survey of New Zealand consulting engineers indicated that the use of marketing techniques within consulting engineering practices is uncoordinated in nature and there is disagreement as to the most efective method of attracting clientele. The lack of coordination of marketing techniques is best illustrated by the majority of consulting engineering practices competing on price, while actually perceiving service quality as the most important method for success. Within consulting engineering practices, marketing is becoming a legitimate management function. However, evidence can be seen to illustrate that the ‘trappings' of marketing prevail rather than the ‘substance’ which is needed to have the customer-driven orientation fundamental to the implementation of the marketing concept.     

External consultants in organisations: evaluating the Spanish case

The article looks into the importance of the work performed by external consultants and consulting as a function in Spanish public and private small and medium-sized industrial organizations that could potentially seek the services of an adviser. The study was conducted by asking them whether they considered the results of the adviser's project to be useful, and about its quality. The aim of the research was to examine what was felt by public and private organisations concerning the use of specialised external advisers, bearing in mind the different reasons that influence politicians, in the case of public companies, and the directors of private companies to engage such services. The former sought to obtain as many votes as possible in the next elections (since the basic purpose underlying the analysis carried out by the external adviser is to maximise the welfare of society). The directors of private firms, on the other hand, sought to obtain returns from the capital invested in engaging the adviser and, thus, maximise the company's profits. Data were obtained by means of personal interviews conducted in organisations that had used consulting services.     

From Shop Floor to Boardroom: The Historical Evolution of Australian Management Consulting, 1940s to 1980s

This article traces the historical development of management consulting in Australia. While some observers have argued the origins of management consulting involved primarily executive and board-level advice over corporate strategy and structure, as was the case in the United Kingdom, Australian management consulting began with a dominantly Taylorist focus on shop-floor productivity before diversifying into the broader range of general management services. It is argued that while economic and technological changes have played a role in such diversification, of equal importance has been the ability of consultancies to reinvent themselves and create demand amongst clinet organisations for an ever increasing range of services. The article concludes by arguing that modern management consulting is a diverse and segmented industry that has been involved as much in the provision of advice and expertise over shop-floor efficiencies, as it has in boardroom strategy.     

Crisis, Committees and Consultants: The Rise of Value-For-Money Auditing in the Federal Public Sector in Canada

This paper investigates the key drivers behind the origins of value-for-money (VFM) audit in Canada and the aims, intents, and logics ascribed by the original proponents. Drawing on insights from governmentality and New Public Management, the paper utilizes analysis methods adapted from case study research to review a wide range of primary documentation (e.g., Hansards from the Public Accounts Committee, House of Commons debates, the so-called Wilson report and the FMCS study) and secondary documentation (newspaper articles, Office of the Auditor General internal publications, journal articles). Major findings indicate a rise of a management consulting culture within the Auditor General’s office following the appointment of James Johnson Macdonell. VFM legislation effectively operationalized practices drawn from management consulting expertise by invitation of the consultant. It was offered as an answer to the growing scope and size of government, which had become problematized by the Auditor General in terms of parliament losing control over the public purse. The Auditor General’s invocation of financial crisis led to a substantial broadening of mandate and increase in resources for that office.     

A Measurement of Bank Efficiency,Ownership and Productivity Changes in Taiwan

German consulting engineering firms currently face great difficulties in competing in globalised markets. They are comparatively small. This article asks what the reasons for this situation are and whether there are options for political assistance to help the trade – perhaps Germany can learn from other countries – and describes the results of a benchmarking study which compares the situation of German firms with that of companies in the US, UK and France. The factors that may possibly be important for international competitiveness are analysed. The main result of the study is that the present weakness of German consulting engineering is caused by their lack of adaptation to the needs of the new globalised markets. German firms suffer now from the rather good and secure business opportunities which they have enjoyed during the phase of ‘Aufbau Ost’ in eastern Germany in the 1990s. They have somewhat missed the restructuring that became necessary. Hence, German consulting engineering has to do the bulk of restructuring itself in order to become competitive again.     

The Impact of Salesperson Perception of Firm Market Orientation on Behaviors and Consulting Effectiveness

The purpose of this study was to study market orientation as an antecedent of salespersons' behaviors that should, in turn, influence the ability of the salesperson to add value to the product or service. There have been many studies of personal antecedents of salespersons behaviors and performance, with little predictive success. But there are few studies of firm-level influences on salesperson behaviors and their outcomes. A survey was sent to non-retail salespeople utilizing previously validated scales for all constructs of interest. The survey responses were analyzed using structural equation modeling to test hypotheses. Results suggest that market orientation has an indirect influence on salesperson consulting through adaptive selling and active listening behaviors. Active listening fully mediates the relationship between customer orientation and salesperson consulting, while salesperson consulting fully mediates the relationship between active listening and consulting effectiveness. Half of the influence of market orientation on salesperson consulting effectiveness is direct, while the other half of its influence is indirect through those salesperson behaviors. The author provides explanations for these results and implications for managers and researchers.     

Disrupting the consultants: Could the advisers use some advice?

Management consulting is a relatively new profession. Such consulting firms have become revered as thought‐leading think tanks and cutting‐edge research organizations. Yet, as they teach their clients to grow, thrive, and innovate, is it possible that top management consulting firms are being disrupted themselves? Even the most seemingly unassailable businesses fall victim to disruption, while others benefit from it to enjoy tremendous growth. Top consultancies are keenly aware of rising competition from emerging‐market information technology firms. Therefore, many have taken countermeasures such as expanding their operations in emerging markets and designing outsourcing strategies to mitigate cost gaps. Time will tell if these efforts prove successful. This article attempts to illustrate how the business of consulting is—after all—a business itself that is subject to the forces and perils therein. Top consultants would be well advised to confront disruption head on, rather than robotically focusing up‐market or silently hoping themselves immune. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

基于知识营销的中小民营企业管理咨询市场营销策略探究——以浙江省永康市为例

在问卷调查基础上分析了以永康市为代表的中小民营企业经营者对管理咨询的认知与需求特征,结合知识营销理论提出有针对性营销策略,以期为咨询机构进入该细分市场、提升我国民营企业经营管理水平提供参考。     

Expertise and organizational boundaries: the varying roles of Australian management consultants

The diversity of management consulting has long been recognized by mainstream commentators, but the more critical literature often overlooks this feature. This article explores different consulting roles by developing a typology based on two dimensions of consulting work: the nature of the knowledge base that consultants purport to use in their work, and the extent to which the boundaries between consultant and client are permeable. Based on interviews with a cross-section of Australian consultants and clients, features of four main consulting roles are outlined. Key developments that are highlighted include the increasingly structured nature of much consulting work and the growth of client-consultant relationships based on social rather than purely market exchange criteria. It is shown that the diversity of consulting roles has developed over time in response to both client demands and consultant initiatives. The analysis raises questions about the nature of expertise and the structure of organizations.     

Service-delivery strategies: Three approaches to consulting for hospitality

Effective consulting for hospitality involves going beyond applying mere expertise to solve a client's particular problem to being an empowering expert who focuses on ensuring that clients obtain the tools and resources needed to solve their own problems.     

Collaborative computing for decision support in cardiovascular consulting

Vascular medicine is a newly developing discipline heavily based on geographically distributed consulting, and there is thus a strong need for computerized decision support in doctor‐to‐doctor collaboration for the management of vascular patients. The latest achievements in collaborative and multimedia computing for group decision support are incorporated into cardiovascular consulting. Feasibility analysis of the two basic components is addressed: (a) the communication system of collaborative computing as identified subject to the specifics of data flow and networking in geographically distributed cardiovascular consulting; and (b) the structure and representations for intelligent software agents that enable transfer of individual expert cardiovascular knowledge, support group brainstorming, and maintain the ongoing learning of group experience and analysis of patients cases.     

Developing critical thinking through student consulting projects

The authors present survey results from faculty at 44 universities on the role of student consulting projects in developing business students' critical thinking. They conclude that students can improve critical thinking by engaging in guided primary and secondary research to inform their business assumptions that underpin business planning and financial modeling in consulting projects. Results also suggest that instructors newer to the practice of using student consulting tend to emphasize objective results (e.g., application of disciplinary skills and research methods), whereas experienced users seem to focus on the subjective consulting process (e.g., managing client relationships and evaluating information quality and fit for the project).     

The European Consultant: What Motivates and What De-motivates?

Management consulting in Europe has grown rapidly over the past ten years outstripping growth rates in all other major markets. This article reports the findings, over four years, from interviews with 145 management consultants working in Europe. The objective of the interviews was to establish what motivated and what de-motivated these men and women in their work. The survey was conducted as part of the course-work of an MBA/Sloan elective in Management Consulting at London Business School. The article ends with what the students felt they had learnt about the work of consultants.     

第四方物流主体研究

文章分析了第四方物流的主体条件 ,结合当前理论界讨论最多的 4PL主体 :3PL、咨询公司、信息技术公司 ,比较分析各自优劣势。最后提出在我国当前 ,第四方物流主体将会是 3PL、物流咨询公司和物流信息技术公司的动态联盟。     

Implementing Experiential Action Learning in International Management Education: The Global Business Strategic (GLOBUSTRAT) Consulting Program

This paper discusses the theoretical foundations and implementation challenges and outcomes of a unique “hands‐on” global consulting program that is integrated into an international EMBA program for mid‐career and senior American and European managers. It details the challenges for the integration of experiential action learning, double‐loop learning, service learning, and tacit learning into global management education and discusses the value of such integration for the EMBA‐participant's learning experience. The lessons learned from the implementation of the use of integrated global consulting based on an experiential action learning model on EMBA education are discussed. The andragogical model of education used should be a useful guide for designing and implementing experiential action learning based MBA/EMBA programs.     

Internationalization Strategies to Replicate in Design and Consulting Engineering Services Firms Related to the Energy Industry

Based on a case study of a Colombian company, HMV Ingenieros Ltda, this article aims to analyze different strategies for expanding consulting and design engineering firms related to the energy industry. Variables taken from internationalization theories, such as the Eclectic paradigm, the Uppsala model, and the five competitive forces, are considered in a longitudinal case study to determine the industry best practices for consulting and design engineering firms. As the focus on these services is relatively new in internationalization and competitiveness studies, this study is believed to be of great interest for research purposes.