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Success factors of management consulting

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Abstract

Management consulting as a service has become part of almost every medium to big company’s daily business. Despite management consulting’s high practical relevance the scientific discussion of this discipline is relatively young and needs to advance. Notably, there is little empirical research that focuses on the conceptualization and operationalization of management consulting’s success factors from a client perspective. Therefore, in this article we theoretically conceptualize and subsequently operationalize critical success factors of management consulting. Also, we examine those factors’ particular impact on management consulting success. Based on a survey of 255 companies and structural equation modeling, we show that six out of seven theoretically derived success factors have a significant positive effect on management consulting success. In particular, Consultant Expertise, Intensity of Collaboration and Common Vision have a strong impact on the performance of management consulting.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. BMW AG, Petuelring 130, 80788, Munich, Germany

    Matias Bronnenmayer

  2. Chair for Information and Communication Management, German University of Administrative Sciences Speyer, Freiherr-vom-Stein-Str. 2, 67346, Speyer, Germany

    Bernd W. Wirtz

  3. German Research Institute for Public Administration Speyer, Freiherr-vom-Stein-Str. 2, 67346, Speyer, Germany

    Vincent Göttel

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  1. Matias Bronnenmayer
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  2. Bernd W. Wirtz
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  3. Vincent Göttel
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Correspondence to Bernd W. Wirtz.

Appendix

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Table 3 Reliability and validity of the single factors/dimensions
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Bronnenmayer, M., Wirtz, B.W. & Göttel, V. Success factors of management consulting. Rev Manag Sci 10, 1–34 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11846-014-0137-5

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