Can Management Consultants Influence Firms’ Dynamic Capabilities Development? A Multiple Case Study

This study focuses on the process of change that firms undertake to overcome situations of organizational rigidity, thanks to the contribution of external actors, such as management consultants. This paper proposes relevant case studies in which external actors introduce new knowledge within organizations activating a processes of change. Each case consists of an organizational consulting project. Consultants are interpreted as external actors who propose new knowledge that can be internalized by the client firm. If a deliberate learning process is developed, the new knowledge from consultants enables the rise of new dynamic capabilities. Results show that consultants can play an active role in helping firms in overcoming conditions of organizational rigidity and in developing new dynamic capabilities. Consultants can foster the capabilities building process transferring their experience and methods to firms’ managers. Nevertheless different patterns of evolution of capabilities can be identified according with the environmental contingencies firms are facing and the perception that internal managers have about consultants.