Acquiring knowledge through management consultancy: national culture perspective

O'Mahoney, Joseph ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4040-3894, Sturdy, Andrew and Galazka, Anna ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4376-1980 2021. Acquiring knowledge through management consultancy: national culture perspective. Journal of Management and Organization 10.1017/jmo.2021.46

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Abstract

This paper examines how national culture informs the sourcing of management knowledge through external consultancy. First, it hypothesises and compares the relationship between quantitative measures of Hofstede's cultural indices with adjusted expenditure on consulting in nine countries. Two cultural indices are found to correlate with consulting use – power distance (negatively) and individualism (positively). However, the disparity between our findings and prior research suggests limitations of generalisation in studies solely employing quantitative cultural indices to understand the purchasing of business knowledge. We therefore propose the use of supplementary, qualitative data with sensitivity to local contexts and briefly apply this by using secondary sources to provide historical narratives for two countries – the UK and Japan. Overall, we find and tentatively explain significant statistical relationships between Hofstede's cultural indices and adjusted expenditure on consultancy. We then draw attention to wider implications for consulting research and for practitioners involved in this context.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Published Online
Status:	In Press
Schools:	Business (Including Economics)
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor > HD28 Management. Industrial Management
Publisher:	e-Content Management
ISSN:	1833-3672
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	24 August 2021
Date of Acceptance:	15 August 2021
Last Modified:	02 Dec 2024 02:30
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/143589

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