In recent decades, the influence of consultants in our economy has increased continuously. Many large client organizations regularly involve consultancies in managerial projects. At the same time, clients have become more discerning in how they involve these advisors. They have gained experience in dealing with consultants. In addition, a larger spectrum of alternatives for the execution of projects, such as external consultants, in-house consultants and internal project teams is available to them. Given these contractual choices and the heavily debated use of consultants, the question arises why managers choose to involve consultants in their project activities and how they structure the contractual relationship with them. Sandra Niewiem provides an empirical examination of the contractual relationship between clients and consultants on the basis of the transaction cost economic (TCE) theory of vertical integration. The comparative contracting perspective is the traditional focus of TCE research. Despite offering a fundament of concepts and empirical evidence, TCE has not yet been applied to consulting settings. Sandra Niewiem's work includes a meta-review of the empirical literature on TCE, which, with a selection of 160 studies, is the largest and most comprehensive review ofTCE literature ever conducted.

Based on the data analysis of more than 1,000 company decisions Robert Urlichs shows that patterns of decision outcomes develop within and even across organisations.

Leading management consultants and academics discuss the development of the consulting industry and of the firms that have decisively shaped the sector. The authors provide in-depth insights into the leadership of top management consultancies, the strategy and structure of consulting firms, the changing dynamics of consultant-client relationships and the development of new consulting approaches.

Katrin Schroder analysiert die Bedingungen der Allokation von Eigentumsrechten an Partner bzw. an unternehmensexterne Investoren. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass Kapitalbedarf, Geschaftsrisiko, Agency-Kosten und die Kosten kollektiver Entscheidungen die Eigentumsallokation bei Unternehmensberatungen entscheidend beeinflussen.