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Internationalization process research has conceptualized the cross‐border move of firms as a process of learning. Yet, little attempts have been made to develop a constructivist learning theory of the internationalizing firm. The aim of this paper is to apply a contemporary learning theoretical framework to analyze the internationalization of professional service firms.

A constructivist theory of learning is applied.

The paper explains learning during the internationalization process of professional service firms as a process of social interaction with the socio‐cultural environment. The paper outlines specific individual and social mechanisms through which firms acquire new knowledge when moving across borders and embed themselves into a new socio‐cultural market domain.

The argument is theoretical in nature and has particular implications for future empirical research, which may investigate the specific social learning mechanisms of the internationalizing firm in particular professional service industries and cultural settings.

The application of a constructivist theory of learning to the internationalization of professional service firms is unique until now to the research field.

Computer-mediated knowledge transfer has been at the forefront of consultancy research. The underlying idea is that individual knowledge can be externalized into disembodied symbols and codes, which can then be disseminated and accessed electronically within and across organizations. Although the process of externalization and transfer of knowledge has been investigated from various theoretical perspectives (positivism, social constructionism, pluralism), little research has addressed the role of cognition in computer-mediated knowledge transfer. Based on a case study within an international technical consulting firm, we argue that the success or failure of computer-mediated knowledge transfer is influenced to a large degree by embodied mental frames, social networks, and individuals’ creative and explanatory use of artifacts in real-world situations.

This study aims to explore how commercial and professional management instruments are combined in accounting firms.

The authors conducted a qualitative study based on 30 semi-structured interviews with partners from 30 different accounting firms (sole practitioners to Big Four) in Germany. The study mainly draws from the literature on the management of accounting firms.

The findings of this study indicate that professional and commercial management instruments structure the use of time by accountants. In these management instruments, professional and commercial goals are interwoven by three mechanisms revealed in this study and named as ambivalence, assimilation and integration. The authors further identify the managerial aspects of professional instruments.

This paper offers three mechanisms that combine commercial and professional goals in the management of accounting firms. The authors thereby contribute to the literature on the management of accounting firms by analysing these mechanisms that enable the pursuit of both goals simultaneously. Further, the authors argue that the minimum organisation, defined by regulators, of accounting firms is an essential infrastructure for the commercialisation of accounting.