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American Management Consulting Companies in Western Europe, 1920 to 1990: Products, Reputation, and Relationships

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  • Kipping, Matthias

Abstract

This article surveys the expansion of American management consulting companies to Western Europe in the twentieth century. It focuses on the way these consultancies built and sustained activities outside their home country. A number of elements facilitated expansion abroad, including the creation of new and distinctive “products,” or approaches to management, and the use of domestic multinational clients as “bridges” to foreign countries. But to be successful in the long run, American consulting companies needed to create relationships with clients in the host country. In this respect, social and, sometimes, political contacts with the local elite, usually established through a few well-connected individuals, proved a crucial advantage.

Suggested Citation

  • Kipping, Matthias, 1999. "American Management Consulting Companies in Western Europe, 1920 to 1990: Products, Reputation, and Relationships," Business History Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 73(2), pages 190-220, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:buhirw:v:73:y:1999:i:02:p:190-220_07
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    Cited by:

    1. Heusinkveld, Stefan & Visscher, Klaasjan, 2012. "Practice what you preach: How consultants frame management concepts as enacted practice," Scandinavian Journal of Management, Elsevier, vol. 28(4), pages 285-297.
    2. Celeste Amorim, 2003. "Business services within network for innovation," Working Papers de Economia (Economics Working Papers) 08, Departamento de Economia, Gestão e Engenharia Industrial, Universidade de Aveiro.
    3. Yves Levant & Simon Alcouffe & Nicolas Berland, 2008. "Actor-networks and the diffusion of management accounting innovations : a comparative study," Post-Print hal-01682216, HAL.
    4. repec:dau:papers:123456789/1094 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Ćwiklicki, Marek & Alcouffe, Alain, 2013. "The Dissemination of Management Innovations through Consultancy in the Postwar Period," MPRA Paper 66225, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised Aug 2015.
    6. Matthias Kipping & Ian Kirkpatrick, 2013. "Alternative Pathways of Change in Professional Services Firms: The Case of Management Consulting," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(5), pages 777-807, July.
    7. Pamela S. Tolbert & Robert J. David & Wesley D. Sine, 2011. "Studying Choice and Change: The Intersection of Institutional Theory and Entrepreneurship Research," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 22(5), pages 1332-1344, October.
    8. Martin Bortz, 2023. "Advice that resonates: explaining the variability in consultants’ policy influence," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 56(2), pages 211-232, June.
    9. Daniel Muzio & David M. Brock & Roy Suddaby, 2013. "Professions and Institutional Change: Towards an Institutionalist Sociology of the Professions," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(5), pages 699-721, July.
    10. Johannes Glückler, 2005. "Making Embeddedness Work: Social Practice Institutions in Foreign Consulting Markets," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 37(10), pages 1727-1750, October.
    11. Merrett, D. T., 2002. "The internationalization of Australian banks," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 12(4-5), pages 377-397.
    12. Alain Alcouffe & Marek Ćwiklicki, 2012. "The Dissemination of Management Innovations through Consultancy in the Interwar Period," Working Papers hal-00841004, HAL.
    13. Geoffrey Jones & Peter Miskell, 2005. "European integration and corporate restructuring: the strategy of Unilever, c.1957–c.1990," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 58(1), pages 113-139, February.
    14. Abdel-Maksoud, A. & Cerbioni, F. & Ricceri, F. & Velayutham, S., 2010. "Employee morale, non-financial performance measures, deployment of innovative managerial practices and shop-floor involvement in Italian manufacturing firms," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 42(1), pages 36-55.
    15. Emma Avetisyan & Kai Hockerts, 2017. "Consolidation of the ESG Rating Industry as an Enactment of Institutional Retrogression," Post-Print hal-01695693, HAL.
    16. Laure Cabantous & Jean-Pascal Gond, 2011. "Rational Decision Making as Performative Praxis: Explaining Rationality's Éternel Retour," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 22(3), pages 573-586, June.

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