Institutional Entrepreneurship: a literature review and analysis of the maturing consulting field
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29716  Institutional entrepreneurship: a literature review and analysis of the maturing consulting fi eld Michael Smets and Markus ReihlenINTRODUCTIONProfessional service fi rms (PSFs) such as management consultancies, investment banks, and accounting and law fi rms have gained positions of strong economic and social infl u-ence in today’s Western economies. The largest PSFs rival multinational corporations in turnover and employment, and many have extended their services beyond the business, politics, and nonprofi t sectors (Empson, 2007b; Greenwood, Suddaby, & McDougald, 2006). Management consultants have established themselves as “the world’s newest pro-fession” (McKenna, 2006) and “market protagonists” (Faust, 2002b: 45) in knowledge economies; elite law fi  rms act as “sanctifi  ers” of international business transactions whose infl  uence  in  many  instances  supplants,  rather  than  supplements,  the  role  of  the  state  (Flood, 2007), and investment banks are claiming to be doing no less than “God’s work” (Arlidge, 2009).This success is to some extent a product of economic trends towards increasing knowl-edge intensity, servitization, globalization, and rapid innovation—however, by no means exclusively.  A  considerable  part  of  PSF  success  is  due  to  professionals’  rhetorical  and  political skills actively to infl uence the institutional environment in which they operate. For  instance,  investment  banks  have  shaped  the  “rules  of  the  game”  by  embedding  former regulators in their ranks or placing loyal employees in prominent political posi-tions who then reinforced the myth of the inevitable “innovation cycle” and legitimized the deregulation of fi nancial markets (Davis, 2009; Economist, 2007). Similarly, research on management fads and fashions has repeatedly recognized how management consult-ants strategically shape management discourse in a way that establishes their own prod-ucts and innovations as sources of commercial success (Abrahamson, 1991; Benders & van Veen, 2001; Berglund & Werr, 2000; Kieser, 1997; Suddaby & Greenwood, 2001).Specifi  cally  with  regard  to  management  consulting,  however,  these  studies  have  focused on the isomorphic pressures that consultants’ eff  orts exert on their clients’ indus-tries.  With  few  exceptions  (e.g.  Fincham  &  Clark,  2002;  Lounsbury,  2002,  2007;  Montgomery & Oliver, 2007), we know little about how emerging professions, such as management  consulting,  professionalize  and  establish  their  services  as  a  taken-  for-  granted element of social life. This is surprising given that professionals have long been recognized as “institutional agents” (DiMaggio & Powell, 1983; Scott, 2008) (see Chapter 17) and professionalization projects have been closely associated with institutionalization (DiMaggio, 1991).
| Originalsprache | Englisch | 
|---|---|
| Titel | Handbook of research on Entrepreneurship in Professional Services | 
| Herausgeber | Markus Reihlen, Andreas Werr | 
| Anzahl der Seiten | 21 | 
| Erscheinungsort | Cheltenham | 
| Verlag | Edward Elgar Publishing | 
| Erscheinungsdatum | 12.2012 | 
| Auflage | 1 | 
| Seiten | 297-317 | 
| ISBN (Print) | 978 1 84844 626 7 | 
| ISBN (elektronisch) | 9781781009109 | 
| DOIs | |
| Publikationsstatus | Erschienen - 12.2012 | 
- Betriebswirtschaftslehre
 - Entrepreneurship
 
