Governance of Professional Service Firms: A Configurational Approach
Research output: Working paper › Working papers
Standard
Lüneburg: Otto Group Lehrstuhl für Strategisches Management an der Leuphana Universität Lüneburg, 2013. (Arbeitspapier : Discussion paper; No. 11).
Research output: Working paper › Working papers
Harvard
APA
Vancouver
Bibtex
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
T1 - Governance of Professional Service Firms
T2 - A Configurational Approach
AU - Harlacher, Dirk
AU - Reihlen, Markus
PY - 2013
Y1 - 2013
N2 - Professional service firms (PSFs) such as accounting firms, management consultancies, or advertising agencies use very different forms of governance ranging from traditional professional partnerships to public corporations. In spite of the extensive literature, little academic work has been done to synthesize the wealth of theoretical and empirical work on PSF governance into a more comprehensive theory of PSF governance. Taking configuration theory as our theoretical approach, we identify three classes of design parameter(legal form, organizational governance structure, and the systems for managing professionals) and six contingency factors (service commoditization, service diversification, firm size, capital intensity, firm culture, and risk of litigation) that are synthesized into four configurations of PSF governance. These are described respectively as the founderdominated, the collegial, the managerial, and the entrepreneurial configuration.
AB - Professional service firms (PSFs) such as accounting firms, management consultancies, or advertising agencies use very different forms of governance ranging from traditional professional partnerships to public corporations. In spite of the extensive literature, little academic work has been done to synthesize the wealth of theoretical and empirical work on PSF governance into a more comprehensive theory of PSF governance. Taking configuration theory as our theoretical approach, we identify three classes of design parameter(legal form, organizational governance structure, and the systems for managing professionals) and six contingency factors (service commoditization, service diversification, firm size, capital intensity, firm culture, and risk of litigation) that are synthesized into four configurations of PSF governance. These are described respectively as the founderdominated, the collegial, the managerial, and the entrepreneurial configuration.
KW - Management studies
M3 - Working papers
T3 - Arbeitspapier : Discussion paper
BT - Governance of Professional Service Firms
PB - Otto Group Lehrstuhl für Strategisches Management an der Leuphana Universität Lüneburg
CY - Lüneburg
ER -