Value Co-Creation in Management Consulting: A Theoretical Framework in Professional Service Context

Management consulting is increasingly recognized as an important contributor to modern economies. Considered as one type of professional services, management consulting is characterized by high levels of client interaction, service customization and flexible knowledge-intensive processes. Successful management consulting practices thus require inputs (e.g. knowledge, skills, experience and judgments) from consultants and clients as well as effective interactions between them. Accordingly, in this paper, built upon the value co-creation theory in the broad context of professional services, we investigate the roles of professionals, clients and their interactions in creating value not only for themselves but also for each other. We base this confirmatory and exploratory research on two qualitative multi-case studies involving in-depth semi-structured interviews with both professionals and clients in various professional service settings. Our results confirm the multi-dimensional and subjective nature of values and suggest a strong dependency of professionals non-monetary value-for-firm on clients value-in-use. Results also suggest that effective professionalclient interaction positively affects value creation for both parties. Finally, professional- and client-related antecedents that enhance the interactions are discussed. The resulting theoretical framework and research propositions advance our conceptual understanding of professional service management, and suggest important managerial implications for both professionals and clients. Given that management consulting is a type of professional service, the findings can also contribute to answering the question how can consultants and clients collaborate more effectively to create value?