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.

M&A transactions impose specific requirements on employees. These must be well understood to enable management to proactively enhance their fulfillment. Daniela Peterhoff develops a concept for Human Resource Due Diligence in M&A that addresses the context-specific human resource requirements.

Denise Sumpf analyses empirically whether art experience contributes to a reduction of perceptual biases in managerial decision-making. The results show that art experience tackles several perceptual biases, but the efficacy and the efficiency as a human resource development tool depend on several variables. For example, the quality of the intermediary, the amount and intensity of exposure to art, or the composition of the participant group are influential.

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.

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.

Vera Schuerhoff entwickelt ein Konzept des organisationalen Lernens, das den Ubergang von der individuellen zur kollektiven Lernebene anhand von vier Phasen erklart. Dazu integriert sie die Erkenntnisse des radikalen und sozialen Konstruktivismus und stellt so die Zusammenhange und Wechselspiele der beiden Lernebenen heraus. Ausserdem gibt sie Handlungsempfehlungen zum Umsetzen ihres Lernkonzepts in die Praxis und bedient sich dabei verschiedener Instrumente wie Unternehmenstheater, Coaching, Open Space Technology und Story Telling."