Between Professional Dedication and Corporate Design: Exploring Forms of New Concept Development in Consultancies

Like any producer who seeks to renew their products, management consultancies need to generate research and develop efforts to keep their portfolio in tune with market demand, a process we refer to as "new concept development." Innovation literature suggests that such a development process involves moving through specific activities and inevitably generates managerial tensions. However, a concept's lack of a material component and the specific characteristics of consultancy work brings notable consequences for the process of developing a repertoire to support the commercialization and implementation of a new concept. To get an understanding about the way such innovation processes take shape in consultancies, this study explores different forms of new concept development and their managerial problems.

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