Assessing the effectiveness of business consulting in operations development projects

Mian M. Ajmal, Fredrik Nordström and Petri Helo

International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, 2009, vol. 58, issue 6, 523-541

Abstract: Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to address the question of the effectiveness of business consultants in operations development projects. It does this by analysing the results of collaboration between a multinational firm and business consultants who applied the theory of constraints to a series of development projects. Design/methodology/approach - Following the presentation of an overview of business consultants and the need to measure the effectiveness of business consulting practices, the paper presents empirical data on the return on investment achieved from 20 development projects in the multinational company under study. Findings - The findings indicate that the involvement of business consultants in development projects has a positive impact on outcomes and can be justified in financial terms. Research limitations/implications - The generalise ability of the results in service sector companies remains to be tested. The data is limited to a set of internal operations development consulting projects within one multinational company. Management consultants and managers will benefit from the results of study. Originality/value - The study provides important insights into the assessment of the effectiveness of business consultants in operations development.

Keywords: Management consultancy; Organizational effectiveness; Project management (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.110 ... d&utm_campaign=repec (text/html)
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.110 ... d&utm_campaign=repec (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eme:ijppmp:v:58:y:2009:i:6:p:523-541

DOI: 10.1108/17410400910977073

Access Statistics for this article

International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management is currently edited by Dr Luisa Huatuco and Dr Nicky Shaw

More articles in International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management from Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Emerald Support ().