Title: How different motives to acquire management consulting affect firms' organisational performance?

Authors: Sami Kajalo; Jukka I. Mattila

Addresses: School of Business, Aalto University, P.O. Box 21210, FI-00076 Aalto, Finland ' Metropolia Business School, P.O. Box 4000, FI-00079, Metropolia, Finland

Abstract: Firms have different motives to acquire management consulting services. However, only limited evidence has been presented on how these different motives affect firms' experienced benefits. This paper focuses on this research gap by studying empirically how different motives to acquire management consulting affect firms' organisational performance. For the empirical analysis a data (N = 1,127) was collected among managers who acquire services of management consultants. We use structural equation modelling (SEM) to test our hypotheses. The results of the SEM model show that when consulting is purchased to obtain best expertise or learn best practises this leads to higher organisational performance. Improved client decisions are in a key mediatory role between management consulting service delivery and organisation's performance. The results show also that using consultancy to gain higher legitimacy does not lead to higher organisational performance. Overall, this research expands knowledge about management consultancy and its impacts on organisational performance.

Keywords: management consulting; competitive advantage; client-consultant relationship; leadership.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBIR.2025.148406

International Journal of Business Innovation and Research, 2025 Vol.38 No.1, pp.74 - 89

Received: 02 May 2022
Accepted: 02 Jul 2022
Published online: 04 Sep 2025 *

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