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Many criticisms questioning the role and the efficiency of business consultants have been addressed. However, although a great deal of research has been carried out on business consultancy, little has been written on business consultancy from the consultant's viewpoint. In order to gain a detailed view of the situation from an internal consultant's perspective, an investigation of how business consultants perceive their role and contribution within their clients' organisations was undertaken. Drawing on different perspectives, this study aims to demystify the role of business consultants, and to ascertain how they perceive their role within their clients' organisations.

A series of interviews were conducted, where business consultants were asked to comment on issues related to the nature of the relationship with their clients, the pros and cons of their role and also the amount of control and discretion they exercise over the different projects in which they are engaged. Interview data from 17 business consultants from a variety of fields, such as change management, information technology, corporate finance and human resource, are analysed using an interpretive frame.

The research findings reveal that differences exist between the rather pejorative conclusions of previous research and the conclusions of this study. Whereas previous research highlighted the omnipotence and the more or less deontological practice of consultants, the data analysis from this study concludes that business consultants appear very humble in their approach to their relationship with clients, and believe that moving clients forward is their ultimate goal. The findings also enable the study to demonstrate that business consultants are conscious of the amount of control and discretion that is passed on to them by clients, and do recognise that criticisms of their role can be at times justified.

The study has value for both consultants and clients. The role determinants model presented in the study highlights the main characteristics of the role of business consultants and helps both clients and consultants to rethink their approach to the consulting process.

This article aims to investigate the practice adopted by entrepreneurs regarding their use of consultants through the business life cycle.

A representative sample of Danish entrepreneurs was surveyed with response rates of 73 percent and 92 percent. The Danish GEM population survey was merged with own follow‐up surveys and statistically analyzed.

The survey results reveal that involvement of consultants increases as entrepreneurs move forward in the business life cycle. As entrepreneurs gain access to more resources, and as their problems become more fragmented, specialised, discrete and business oriented, the feasibility and benefit of consultant involvement becomes more viable. It was further found that older entrepreneurs have a higher tendency to involve consultants and that entrepreneurs mostly discuss economic and financial issues with consultants to whom they are mostly weakly connected.

Compared to other people in entrepreneurs' social networks, entrepreneurs mostly discuss financial issues with consultants with whom they are mostly relatively weakly connected.

It is suggested that a publicly‐supported advisory system should continue its effort in the early stages where entrepreneurs have only scarce resources. Further it is suggested that this advisory should be even more concentrated towards other issues than financial issues such as marketing, strategy, coordination, and specific opportunity development.

The research extends previous studies by integrating advisory literature and social network literature. The introduction of the business life cycle is also new. The results are based on a very solid research design.

The purpose of this paper to describe the effective business consultant's most desirable characteristics.

Development of propositions based on a review of the literature, anecdotal reports and the experience of the authors.

The effective business consultant should possess functional knowledge as well as knowledge of an industry, communication and analytical skills, creativity, strategic and tactical leadership abilities, and a set of personality traits that includes emotional stability, intellect, integrity and openness and agreeableness.

HR departments and training units in consulting firms may use the profile of the effective consultant as a tool in their selection and training procedures, as well as in matching consultants with clients. Consulting services clients may use the profile of the effective consultant to identify effective consulting service providers. Consultants may use the recommendations as a source for individual growth. Universities and business schools may use the study to improve training of future consultants.

The paper sets a research agenda for the study of the effective business consultant's characteristics.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the interplay between the requirements for successful organisational change and the imperatives faced by management consultancy firms in running successful businesses, and how this interplay affects the ways in which management consultants influence organisational change projects.

The paper reviews literature on management consultancy and organisational change over the past 30 years to identify insights into this issue.

The paper shows that business imperatives faced by management consultancy firms affect the ways in which consultants influence organisational change projects. It shows how management consultants aspire to form strategic partnerships with their clients in order to win profitable business, and to plagiarise established organising practices and change management methods in defining their services in order to manage their costs. It illustrates how these aspirations give rise to a number of dualities that consultants face in undertaking organisational change projects.

Only limited research has been carried out into the ways in which the business imperatives of management consultancy firms interact with the requirements for successful organisational change in shaping the influence that management consultants have on organisational change projects. This paper demonstrates the significance of this issue and suggests directions for future research into it.

Purpose – This chapter traces the creation of a market for strategy by management consulting firms during the second half of the twentieth century in order to demonstrate their impact in shaping debates in the subject and demand for their services by corporate executives.

Design/methodology/approach – Using historical analysis, the chapter draws on institutional theory, including institutional isomorphism. It uses both primary and secondary data from the leading consulting firms to describe how consultants shifted from offering advice on organizational structure to corporate strategy and eventually to corporate legitimacy as a result of the changing economic and regulatory environment of the time.

Findings/originality/value – This study provides a historical context for the emergence of corporate and competitive strategy as an institutional practice in both the United States and around the world, and provides insights into how important this history can be in understanding the debates among consultants and academics during strategy's emergence as an academic subject and practical application.

The British Government instituted a new direction for small business support in 1992 with the establishment of Business Links. These are intended to coordinate assistance through locally integrated business support services. Business Links have been the subject of several evaluative studies, one of which was particularly critical, besides being the focus of comment in the business press. In particular, Personal Business Advisers (PBAs, who are usually employees of BLs) have been subjected to scrutiny; concern being expressed about the extent to which PBAs’ recommendations are acted upon. Much of the specialist consultancy is provided by self‐employed persons under contract for particular projects. This paper focuses on the self‐employed consultants who undertake specialist Business Link‐supported work within SMEs. While most business Links have role and job descriptions for PBAs, this is rarely the case for consultants. Self‐employed consultants are generally accredited by BLs themselves or by third parties. Accreditation procedures could be improved; clear criteria are required for monitoring consultancy processes and outcomes, and consultants need to receive feedback. There are opportunities for closer contact between self‐employed consultants and Business Links which would improve the quality of the service to SMEs, the learning of individuals and the organisational learning and public accountability of Business Links.

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) consultants have the expertise required to understand the specific contextual needs of an ERP client, implement tailored business processes that meet those needs, and ensure that no potential benefit offered by the ERP remains unexplored by the client. However, conflicts between ERP clients and consultants are a significant source of non-benefit realisation, making managing client–consultant agency crucial to ERP post-implementation benefits realisation. This paper aims to elucidate how managing client–consultant agency affects the benefits derived from ERP systems.

This paper uses microfinance institutions in 15 sub-Saharan African countries to explore different paths through which managing client–consultant agency leads to benefit realisation in ERP projects. It uses partial least squares structural equation modelling to analyse data from 127 managers and explains the results using insights from agency theory and the information system (IS) success model.

This paper reveals three routes through which contractual agreements and conflict resolution strategies lead to benefits realisation in ERP projects.

This is the first study that attempts to provide quantitative evidence of how managing the complex relationship between ERP project stakeholders affects ERP project success. It also contributes a novel theoretical model for ERP benefits realisation to complement existing research on ERP agency issues, critical success factors, and benefits realisation.

Business process re‐engineering (BPR) is described as a management fashion. Manage‐ment fashions are introduced on the market for management knowledge by fashion‐setters, who are often consultants. Characteristic for management fashions are multi‐interpretability and promises of performance improvements. The demand for and supply of management fashions is constituted in iterative cycles. By drawing on primary and secondary data, we show how Dutch consultants handle the management fashion BPR. They tend to be highly pragmatic in using this fashionable label. In close interaction with clients, elements of the original BPR concept are dropped and notions of other concepts are included in what are called “BPR‐projects”. The label “BPR” is used for commercial reasons, yet it is easily decoupled from the original concepts and coupled to notions of other concepts. The consequences of these findings for the current literature on management fashions are discussed.

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the benefits of utilizing teams of personal and financial consultants to work with farm families in New York State on issues affecting farm business performance.

Program experience in implementing an integrated consulting model provides a framework for illustrating how such a model may be utilized on farms and other family businesses for succession planning.

An integrated personal and financial consulting model is effective in producing lasting business results such as business growth, improved profitability, and reduced interpersonal conflict on farms in New York State.

Farmers employ a multitude of risk management tools, such as crop insurance, to reduce various types of risk affecting their farm businesses in New York State, but an area often overlooked by farmers is managing human resource risk, namely succession risk. As the average age of farmers in the USA continues to increase, employing new tools and strategies is critical when developing an effective business succession plan for farmers.

Consultancy services for internationalisation are crucial to help companies to grow and find new businesses abroad. This kind of service used to be provided by consultancy firms operating in the home country of the clients. Considering the advantages of partnerships that theory has enhanced, this paper aims to identify the motivations and perceived opportunities from consultancy firms to establish business-to-business partnerships with international consultancy companies in other countries, with the purpose of reinforcing international trading.

As an exploratory study, this paper shows the perspective of 13 interviewed German consultancy managers focused on international business about developing a partnership with international consultancy firms from Portugal.

Consultants indicate that with mutual benefits, partnerships are welcome. However, the study enhances the importance of signals of status and reputation for international partnerships among business consultancy firms and reveals a lack of knowledge about the market opportunities for internationalisation that might motivate German consultancy firms to establish partnerships with consultancy companies in Portugal.

The paper highlights the low motivation of consultants from a higher-status country to establish partnerships with international business consultancy firms in lower-status countries. The study addresses useful recommendations for consultancy firms, governments and international trade agencies to intensify marketing activities and enhance country reputation and positioning in international business, communicating the opportunities and potential of markets and building signals of status and reputation for international consulting.