Innovation management in consulting firms: identifying innovation processes, capabilities and dimensions

Consulting firms are considered part of knowledge-intensive business services, in which expert knowledge plays a crucial input in the provision of service. Using a multi-case study, this study aims to improve understanding of how consulting firms strategically manage innovation processes and which capabilities and dimensions they focus on to deliver innovation, based on interaction among the main actors from both an internal and external perspective. Consulting firms tend to simplify reality, but several innovation processes take place at the same time. Results show that these views are not mutually exclusive; on the contrary, many of them coexist over the lifecycle of the firm and its particular business conditions. The challenge for innovation in consulting firms is achieving a balance between generating incremental change by exploiting current knowledge and creating radical innovations by exploring new ideas at the same time.