Ansgar Richter, Michael Dickmann and Michael Graubner
The purpose of this paper is to analyse the human resource management (HRM) policies and practices in consulting firms. The paper specifically investigates whether or not the HRM…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyse the human resource management (HRM) policies and practices in consulting firms. The paper specifically investigates whether or not the HRM approaches in these firms mirror the two organisational archetypes of professional partnerships (P2) and manage professional businesses (MPB) found in the professional services sector.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper draws on interviews with experienced consultants from a sample of 28 large and medium‐sized consulting firms with a presence in Germany and Switzerland. The paper uses both qualitative and quantitative methods to evaluate the data.
Findings
The findings in the paper show that P2‐type consulting firms take fundamentally different approaches to HRM from MPB‐type firms. In P2‐type consulting firms, HRM is an integral part of the organisational system and is run in practice by consultants, rather than by specialised HR staff. P2‐type firms emphasise the notion of membership of individuals in an organisation tied together by extended socialisation processes and adherence to common values. In contrast, MPB‐type firms exhibit HRM systems with “corporate” features widely used in other large‐scale service organisations.
Research limitations/implications
The paper shows that the organisational archetypes prevalent in professional service firms have significant implications for their HRM systems. Consulting firms' HRM practices and policies should be interpreted in the light of their respective organisational archetype.
Practical implications
The paper concludes that consulting firms should use HRM practices that fit the organisational archetype they embody.
Originality/value
The paper provides systematic evidence on the HRM policies and practices in an important yet under‐researched sector.
Details
Keywords
The purpose of this study is to advance and test the idea that product exports and technology imports are complementary cross-border learning approaches for emerging market firms’…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to advance and test the idea that product exports and technology imports are complementary cross-border learning approaches for emerging market firms’ innovation performance. In addition, this paper also seeks to search for contextual variables that affect this complementarity.
Design/methodology/approach
This study takes systems approach to examine complementarity, combining a “productivity” and an “adoption” approach. In addition, interaction approach is also used as robustness check.
Findings
The authors show that the positive effect of export activity on firms’ growth rate is higher for firms that also engage in technology import, and vice versa. Furthermore, they show that, Ceteris paribus, firms’ adoption of one cross-border learning mechanism (e.g. entering export markets) positively influences the adoption of the other (e.g. technology import). Moreover, this complementarity is only significant for firms from province with low level of marketization.
Research limitations/implications
This inconsistency about learning-by-exporting and technology import on innovation can be resolved, at least partially, by the complementarities perspective. This paper also reveals two mechanisms of learning-by-exporting: the indirect effect of export on innovation through increasing the likelihood of adoption decision of importing technology and enhancing the positive effect of technology imports.
Practical implications
The potential of combining the two strategies should not be ignored by managers. To improve regional competitiveness, local governments should try best to improve the efficiency of customs to help firms realize the synergistic effect of learning-by- exporting and learning-by-technology-importing.
Originality/value
This study first explores the positive complementarity between the two cross-border learning mechanism in sharping EEEs 2019 innovation performance and identifies the condition to realize the synergistic effect of learning-by-exporting and learning-by-technology-importing.