Developing and Managing Relational Market-Based Assets in Professional Services: Client Relationships in Management Consultancy

Abstract

Developing and managing supplier-client relationships in professional business services are fundamental to success and profitability. Client relationships need to be developed carefully and managed properly in order to act as strong and enduring relational market-based assets. Yet these all-important processes have attracted limited research attention in the context of professional business services in general and management consultancy in particular. Using empirical data from in-depth interviews, this paper examines how business relationships are developed and managed in the management consultancy context, in order to contribute to this significant research gap. Drawing on consultants’ and clients’ perceptions of practices of relationship development and management, two diagnostic frameworks are conceptualized, which identify, firstly, the key success factors for developing long-term relationships and, secondly, the process mechanisms for optimum management of relationships in professional business services companies.