Stefan Heusinkveld

The widespread promotion of management ideas, their regular inclusion in textbooks and business school curricula and their use in organizational change programs has engendered debates about the impact of these ideas on management and organizational practice. Based on analyses of managerial audience members' activities and related meaning-making prior to, during and after guru events with leading management thinkers, this book sheds new light on how management practitioners come to use management ideas in the different relevant contexts of their working lives. The authors argue that a broader, more differentiated and more dynamic view of managerial audiences is essential in understanding the impact of management ideas as well as the nature of contemporary managerial work. For scholars and students in organisation studies, knowledge management and management consultancy, as well as reflective management practitioners.

The widespread promotion of management ideas, their regular inclusion in textbooks and business school curricula and their use in organizational change programs has engendered debates about the impact of these ideas on management and organizational practice. Based on analyses of managerial audience members' activities and related meaning-making prior to, during and after guru events with leading management thinkers, this book sheds new light on how management practitioners come to use management ideas in the different relevant contexts of their working lives. The authors argue that a broader, more differentiated and more dynamic view of managerial audiences is essential in understanding the impact of management ideas as well as the nature of contemporary managerial work. For scholars and students in organisation studies, knowledge management and management consultancy, as well as reflective management practitioners.

Although there has traditionally been considerable field-level attention on how consultants market their ideas and practices, there is still a lack of research that discusses the earlier intra-organizational phases in the development process. While the present literature provides important insights that enhance our understanding of consulting, the consultancy industry, and the way that consultants present their ideas and services on the market for management solutions, we know relatively little about the way knowledge-based innovations develop within consultancy firms and the mechanisms that shape the intra-organizational evolution of these ideas and practices. This book seeks to address this gap by revealing how the development of new ideas and practices takes shape in consultancies. The work addresses questions such as: In which way do consultancies sense the contemporary market needs? How do new ideas and practices become established within a consultancy? How do consultancies seek to maintain their repertoire? And what role do these new ideas and practices play in their assignments? To provide more insight into these different aspects of knowledge-based innovation in consultancies, the book draws on and integrates literature from diverse relevant fields such as product innovation and market orientation, but also uses institutional and practice-based perspectives. The research presented in this book can be seen in the light of emerging research into ‘knowledge-based innovation’ and ‘new concept development’ that concentrate on empirically studying how knowledge entrepreneurs seek to develop commercially viable ideas and practices that have the potential to have a significant impact on management and organizational praxis.

Although there has traditionally been considerable field-level attention on how consultants market their ideas and practices, there is still a lack of research that discusses the earlier intra-organizational phases in the development process. While the present literature provides important insights that enhance our understanding of consulting, the consultancy industry, and the way that consultants present their ideas and services on the market for management solutions, we know relatively little about the way knowledge-based innovations develop within consultancy firms and the mechanisms that shape the intra-organizational evolution of these ideas and practices. This book seeks to address this gap by revealing how the development of new ideas and practices takes shape in consultancies. The work addresses questions such as: In which way do consultancies sense the contemporary market needs? How do new ideas and practices become established within a consultancy? How do consultancies seek to maintain their repertoire? And what role do these new ideas and practices play in their assignments? To provide more insight into these different aspects of knowledge-based innovation in consultancies, the book draws on and integrates literature from diverse relevant fields such as product innovation and market orientation, but also uses institutional and practice-based perspectives. The research presented in this book can be seen in the light of emerging research into ‘knowledge-based innovation’ and ‘new concept development’ that concentrate on empirically studying how knowledge entrepreneurs seek to develop commercially viable ideas and practices that have the potential to have a significant impact on management and organizational praxis.