Cette thèse explore la manière dont les acteurs développent un nouveau business model au sein d’une entreprise existante. Reconnu comme une source de performance pour l’entreprise, le développement de nouveaux business models requiert de profonds efforts des acteurs pour l’appréhension de leur environnement et la réinterprétation des mécanismes de création, livraison et capture de la valeur. Par conséquent, nous nous intéressons à la manière dont l’articulation entre cognition et action guide le processus d’innovation de business model. Pour ce faire, nous adoptons la perspective sensemaking afin d’examiner les processus de construction de sens des acteurs qui sous-tendent l’innovation de business model. Ce travail repose sur une démarche ethnographique pour l’étude du développement d’un nouveau business model au sein d’un cabinet de conseil en management. Les résultats montrent qu’au travers d’interactions sociales variées, les processus de construction et de destruction de sens des acteurs façonnent l’innovation de business model. Propres au contexte d’une entreprise existante, les activités initiales de la firme jouent un rôle ambivalent dans le développement d’un nouveau business model : tantôt le favorisant, tantôt l’entravant / This study explores how actors develop a new business model in an established firm. As a firms’ performance improvement source, new business model development require actor’s important efforts for their environment understanding and reinterpretation of value creation, delivery and capture mechanisms. Consequently, we are interested in how the articulation between cognition and action drives the business model innovation process over time. We adopt a sensemaking perspective to shed light actors’ meaning construction processes underlying business model innovation. We studied a new business model development process in a management consulting firm through an ethnographic stance. Findings show that through various social interactions, actors’ construction and destruction meaning processes shape business model innovation. Specific to established firms context, the company’s prevailing activities play an ambivalent role in a new business model development : sometimes favoriting it, sometimes hampering it.

Whilst utilization of management consulting services has become an integral part of the contemporary economy and functioning of many organizations, intangibility leaves clients unable to predict or objectively assess the values created in consulting engagements. According to scholars, attempts to counteract the principal-agent related risks of opportunism and divergent incentives are expected to increase following higher competition, consumer awareness and anticipated increased demand for performance-based pricing. Improved comprehension of means to evaluate consulting services should become increasingly significant not only for the management consulting firms with increasing needs to tangibilize value and prove “success” to a greater extent, but also for the purchasing organizations in both private and public sectors. The academic attention to the industry has been described as surprisingly low, and previous scholars urge for increased empirical data on evaluation practices in general, and for additional contexts and sizes of consulting firms, in particular. Accordingly, this study aims to contribute with empirical data and understanding of consultants’ reasoning and approaches through asking; How do small Swedish management consulting firms approach evaluation of their engagements in terms of client satisfaction and value generated within the client organization, and; what is the rationale behind the eventual evaluation approach(es) used? Based on a literature review on primarily the fields of; the management consulting industry, intangibility of knowledge-intensive services, and scholarly suggested evaluation methods, semi-structured interviews were conducted with senior managers, partners and CEOs representing ten small-sized management consulting firms in Sweden. The purposively sampled respondents were categorized based on relative size and relative service offering, enabling comparison between size and type of business. Thematic analysis of the interviews showed great similarities between firms, and that valuation approaches are commonly unstructured, situational and goal-oriented, focused on aggregated satisfaction, rarely including objective measurements, initiated by the consultant, conducted through dialogue and sometimes supported by questionnaires. It was concluded that the evaluation approaches are generally highly subjective and focused on capturing client perceptions. Discrepancies between respondents’ practices and scholarly suggested methods were identified, and analysis of variations concluded that smaller firms seem to have less developed evaluation approaches. The respondents’ rationales were described and categorized into; drivers, deterrents and obstacles. Potential catalysts for change, including price sensitivity, client demand and performance-based pricing were identified. Whilst the study does provide requested empirical data and may facilitate improved comprehension of means to counteract intangibility to benefit clients and consultants - and hopefully increase public interest for these issues - further research is needed to nuance the findings, especially through capturing clients’ perspectives.

The topic of the diploma thesis is evaluation of the project "Don't get lost in old age". This project is focused on education and counseling in topics of aging. In theoretical part, I focus on description of current situation of old age and aging, summarize old age associated key problems to which the project tries to respond. I also describe the concept of dignity, clarify the needs of seniors and their families. I also mention the possibilities of social services that focus on the elderly or support the carers. The main topic of the work is to introduce and evaluate the consulting portal and all its activities. The project includes many professionals such as a lawyer, nutritionist, financial expert, psychologist and social worker. Range of areas of consultations is therefore wide. However, in order for the project to reach the public as much as possible, it is necessary to direct activities right, to promote the consulting portal and increase interest in the topic of old age and aging with it. In practical part, through interviews with experts and project participants, I evaluate the functionality of the project and I map where improvements would be appropriate. Using an evaluation questionnaire, I focus on client satisfaction with consulting and, based on statistics, I also evaluate the success...

Background: Digitalization and digital technologies are of significance to management consultant firms since they influence them and force them to reshape and improve their business processes. For that purpose, firms can use Business Process Improvements methods, such as process mapping, benchmarking and maturity models. The authors identified multiple gaps in literature which this thesis aims to address. One gap was the lack of literature focusing on the industry of professional service firms, like management consultant firms. Another gap was on a standardized management consulting process, and the knowledge of how digital technologies are being used within it. There was also a lack of knowledge about what performance improvements management consulting firms can expect when using digital technologies in their management consulting process. Lastly, there is no digital maturity model that is focused towards management consultant firms, that can identify management consultant firms' level of digital maturity. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore, describe and explain digital technologies used within a standardized management consulting process, expected performance improvements through the use of digital technologies and the levels of digital maturity through a maturity model for management consultant firms. Method: A qualitative study with an exploratory and explanatory research strategy was used. An abductive approach was applied for this multiple case study, which was based on semi-structured interviews with nine different Case Firms. Findings and Conclusion: The results of the study developed a standardized management consulting process including following activities; initial contact, background research, current status assessment, present project plan, developing solution, closing project by implementing solution and follow up, feedback and lessons learned. Across the standardized consulting process, the firms used technology types of artificial intelligence, analytical applications, cloud computing, automation and web-based applications. The digital technologies are used for collecting information, collaborative presentations, communicating, collaborating to develop consulting solutions, storing and managing documents, managing projects, tracking time, analysing information, developing and sharing insights, and customer relationship management. Seven key categories of performance were identified, which could be improved through the use of digital technologies. The categories include improved knowledge transfer, increased efficiency, measurable value based impact to client, increased quality of consulting, increased competitive advantage, improved knowledge management, increased client reaction and satisfaction. Each of these categories of performance improvements can be further categorized into improvements of efficiency and effectiveness for the consulting process. Improvements in efficiency relate to improvements in the utilization of resources. Improvements in effectiveness relate to improvements in quality of the resulting client solution. The study defined four levels of digital maturity for management consultant firms, including researchers, beginners, adopters and leaders. The key dimensions for assessing their digital maturity include culture, strategy, organization and operations, technology and insights. Across the dimensions there are 15 sub-dimensions and 52 statements for self-assessing digital maturity. The maturity model may be applied by future management consultant firms for benchmarking position within the industry and identifying gaps, opportunities and vision for improvement in their own consulting process and performance through leveraging digital technologies.

In this comparative case study between Handelsbanken and Nordea, the homogeneous industry of banking is investigated together with the phenomena of management consulting. The two banks are scrutinized under the same laws and regulations, offering the same products and services and tend to recruit similar people. Hence, they are under the same isomorphic pressures. At the same time, it has been acknowledged in the media that the two big banks clearly have different opinions towards management consulting, which additionally is a business area that has increased dramatically over the past years. With this in mind it is interesting to examine why the two actors take such different stands towards the usage of management consultants? In order to answer the research question, theories within management consulting, isomorphism, organizational identity and culture are presented. Semi-structured interviews are used as a primary method and the result of our study is twofold. First, the banks have different ideas about what a management consultant contributes with. Second, the result emphasizes the importance of organizational culture to a greater extent than expected. Hence the cultural palette and the existing understanding of management consulting in these two banks are crucial in order to understand the differences within a homogeneous industry.

Background:  In recent years, Sweden’s micro consulting enterprise (MCE) industry has grown significantly. Even during the COVID-19 pandemic, the MCE business in Sweden continued to grow in a positive direction, while bigger consulting firms were heavily impacted, with around 48% of firms seeing negative growth. Because of the growth, there is a necessity for MCEs to distinguish themselves in the market as smaller consulting firms face stiff competition from larger enterprises. Due to today’s digital generation, MCEs are provided with an excellent opportunity to develop a digital communication strategy. Hence, a common strategy being used is content marketing which acts as a communication strategy to attract new customers. Problem:  After founding a MCE, there is an ambiguity in how to reach customers, as a cause of the small size of the company. The low amount of employees leads to lacking intangible assets, which instead induce word-of-mouth marketing. However, such marketing is rather uncertain and difficult to strategize. Meanwhile, there is a growth of MCE’s utilization of content marketing to increase sales. Previous researchers within the area have expressed the need for understanding MCE’s relation to content marketing, to evaluate how MCEs can apply content marketing to acquire new customers. Purpose: This thesis aims to develop knowledge on the possibilities for MCEs to strengthen their chances to acquire new customers through content marketing. Method: This qualitative research has been conducted through multiple-case study with six different cases, which includes organizational documents and semi-structured interviews. The sampling was based on the criteria of being a CEO of a MCE in Sweden, which must have a website and a LinkedIn-profile. The data analysis followed a thematic analysis to identify patterns of how MCEs use content marketing.   Results: The empirical findings presented homogenous answers aligned with the process of how to conduct successful content marketing. By identifying the four steps of ‘Awareness’, ‘Initiate Contact’, ‘Sales and Delivery’, and ‘Long-term Relationships’ the ‘MCE’s Content Marketing Model’ was established. By utilizing the model, MCEs could sustain a competitive advantage in the crowded market.

Bakgrund: Intresset för att nyttja bemanningspersonal har ökat senaste tiden och fler företag har förstått flexibiliteten det finns runt konceptet att hyra in konsulter i sina företag. Ansvaret över de Bakgrunduthyrda konsulterna är konsultchefen som sköter både kontakten med kundföretag men även all administration runt konsulternas anställning. Konsultchefens roll är unik på det sättet att arbetet sker i Syfteen trepartsrelation där krav kommer från två olika håll, både från kundföretaget och konsulten. Eftersom att konsulterna är utstationerade på olika företag sker konsultchefens ledarskap på distans och det krävs Metoden flexibel arbetsroll för att möta alla konsulters behov. Konsulternas prestation sammankopplas med trivseln på företaget och det är därför viktigt att konsultchefen skapar goda relationer med konsulterna. Syfte: Syftet med studien är att beskriva hur konsultchefer arbetar relationsskapande gentemot konsulten på distans. Metod: Igenom studien har ett tolkande perspektiv tillämpats tillsammans med en konstruktionistiskt synsätt. En induktiv forskningsansats följer studien och i linje med detta en kvalitativ forskningsmetod där sju stycken semi-strukturerade intervjuer genomfördes med konsultchefer för att samla in empiri. Efter detta skedde transkribering av intervjuerna och en tematisk analys genomfördes för att sortera och kategorisera insamlad empiri. Den tematiska analysen hjälpte till att hitta framträdande teman som var till hjälp att nå ett resultat. Slutsats: Det finns en del olika infallsvinklar som spelar roll i besvarande av frågeställningen. Trepartsrelationen är relevant på det sättet att kundens bemanningsstrategi samt konsultens anställningstyp spelar roll i vilken typ av relation konsultchefen får till konsulten. Konsultchefens möjlighet att bygga förtroende redan på introduktion samt konsultchefens kommunikationsförmåga och tillgänglighet anses dock övergripande för att öka chanserna att bygga relationer på distans / Background: The interest in using temporary staff has increased recently and more companies have understood the flexibility around the concept of hiring consultants in their companies. Responsible over the consultants is the consulting manager who handles both contact with customer companies and the administration around the consultants' employment. The role of a consulting manager is unique due to that it takes place inside a tripartite relationship where requirements comes from both the client company and the consultants. The consultants are stationed at different companies which means that the consulting managers are using distance leadership and a flexible work role is required. The consultants' performance is linked to the well-being in the company and its therefore important that the consulting manager creates good relationships with the consultants. Purpose: The purpose of the study is to describe how consulting managers create relationships with the consultant at a distance. Method: Throughout the study, an interpretive perspective has been applied together with a constructionist approach. An inductive research are used through the study and in line with this a qualitative research method. To collect empirical data semi-structured interviews was implemented with seven consulting managers. After this, the interviews were transcribed and a thematic analysis was performed to sort and categorize collected empirical data. The thematic analysis assisted to find prominent themes that were helpful in achieving a result. Conclusion: There are a number of different angles that make sense in answering the purpose in this study. The tripartite relationship, which includes the customer's staffing strategy and the consultant's employment type will make sense in how the relationship between the consultant manager consultant will look like. To increase the chances of building relationships at a distance the consultant manager can use the introduction to build a trustful relation and the consultant manger also needs to have an overall availability and be good at communication.

Bakgrund: På samma sätt som fordonsindustrin uppfyller kundens behov medhjälp av ett kundanpassat utbud bestående av standardiserade moduler, finnsdet intresse hos konsultbolag att använda modularitet för att standardisera ochkundanpassa tjänster. Syfte: Studiens syfte är att utforska fördelar, nackdelar och risker med attanvända tjänstemodularitet för konsulttjänster från både kundens ochleverantörens perspektiv, samt undersöka vilka konsekvenser tjänstemodularitetkan medföra. Metod: En explorativ fallstudie genomfördes och med teoretisk tematisk analysidentifierades fördelar, nackdelar och risker med att använda tjänstemodularitetför konsulttjänster. Vidare analys gjordes för att undersöka vilka konsekvensertjänstemodularitet medför. Datainsamlingen har bestått av primärdata frånintervjuer och sekundärdata från observationer och dokument. Resultat: Studien resulterade i två teman, sex subteman och 25 koder. Studienpåvisar flertalet fördelar, nackdelar och risker med tjänstemodularitet förkonsulttjänster, från både kundens och leverantörens perspektiv. Fördelar,nackdelar och risker vägdes samman för att beskriva konsekvenser somtjänstemodularitet medför. Slutsats: Studiens slutsats är att tjänstemodularitet kan bli ett effektivt sätt attkombinera kundanpassning och standardisering, förutsatt att funna nackdelaroch risker hanteras. De nackdelar och risker är i många fall kopplade direkt ellerindirekt till de funna fördelarna och utmaningarna som nackdelar och riskermedför kan leda till fördelar om dom hanteras rätt. Originalitet: Studien bidrar med ökad förståelse kring tjänstemodularitet förkonsulttjänster. Detta genom att belysa nackdelar och risker medtjänstemodularitet ur både kunds- och leverantörsperspektiv. / Background: In the same way that the automotive industry meets thecustomer's needs with the help of a customized range consisting of standardizedmodules, there is an interest in consulting companies to use modularity tostandardize and customize services. Purpose: The purpose of the study is to explore the advantages, disadvantages,and risks of using service modularity for consulting services from both thecustomer's and the supplier's perspective, and to investigate the consequencesof service modularity. Methodology: An exploratory case study was conducted and with theoreticalthematic analysis the advantages, disadvantages, and risks of using servicemodularity for consulting services were identified. Further analysis wasperformed to investigate the consequences of service modularity. The datacollection consisted of primary data from interviews and secondary data fromobservations and documents. Result: The study resulted in two themes, six subthemes, and 25 codes. Thestudy reveals several advantages, disadvantages, and risks of service modularityfor consulting services, from both the customer's and the supplier's perspective.Advantages, disadvantages, and risks were weighed together to describe theconsequences of service modularity. Conclusion: The study concludes that service modularity can be an effectiveway to combine customer customization and standardization if disadvantagesand risks are addressed. The disadvantages and risks are in many cases linkeddirectly or indirectly to the advantages found and the challenges thatdisadvantages and risks entail can lead to advantages if they are handledcorrectly. Originality: The study contributes to an increased understanding of servicemodularity for consulting services. This is done by highlighting disadvantagesand risks with service modularity from both a customer and supplierperspective.

Consultant and client collaborations seek to create value for both parties. This thesis builds on service-dominant logic and examines how value is perceived and co-created by consultants in their client projects. The findings of this qualitative interview study advance a model of value co-creation in consultant assisted projects, which outlines what operant resources embrace the activities in the value co-creation process. The thesis supports the notion of value co-creation as a function of interaction in consulting projects and further contributes to the understanding of value from a professional service suppliers' perspective. The results contribute to the value creation literature and provide insights for consultants, clients and practitioners within the consulting domain. / Konsult och kundsamarbeten strävar för att skapa mervärde för båda organisationerna. Denna uppsats bygger på tjänstedominanta logiken och utforskar hur mervärde är uppfattat och skapat av konsulter i deras kundprojekt. Forskningen tar fram en modell som bygger på empirisk kvalitativ intervjudata. Uppsatsen stöder föreställningen av samskapat mervärde som en funktion av interaktion i kontexten av konsultprojekt och ger en insikt i hur konsulter uppfattar mervärde. Resultaten bidrar till mervärde litteraturen och ger insikter för konsultkunder och praktiker inom konsultdomänen.

Purpose The purpose of this case study is to explore the measures which the engineering consulting firm use to retain their employees for sustaining competitive advantage. The key focus of the research is to address the reasons for high employee turnover and connect these reasons with the measures to retain employees to maintain a low employee turnover for sustained competitive advantage. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative and abductive approach is applied for this research with a single case study of a Swedish-based engineering consultancy firm. Data collection includes both primary and secondary data. Primary data was achieved based on semistructured and virtual interviews with five interview participants; two of them are at managerial levels. Secondary data include reports and documents from the case company, the Swedish Federation of Innovation Companies, and other relevant sources. Findings and conclusion Low employee turnover rate can help sustain a competitive advantage for an engineering consulting firm. Nine retention measures are explored in this study which includes eight non-financial measures and one financial measure which can be listed as: 1. Transformational leadership style; 2. Open and trusting culture and values of an organization 3. Talent management approach which enhances job security and opportunities for advancement; 4. Respectful, open, and inspiring communication; 5. The autonomy which empowers freedom and independence of work and decision-making; 6.Work-life balance; 7. Employer brand, interesting clients and meaningful projects; 8. Diversity of the workforce; 9. Fair compensation package Originality/Value This study contributes to the knowledge-intensive segment and the engineering consultancy field with insights from a leading Swedish engineering consulting firm. A newly established model is presented with concepts from previous research findings and the empirical findings of this research.