ABSTRACT
The diffusion of management knowledge has become an area of increasing interest for business scholars, given the pace of globalization and debates over the convergence of national economic systems (Guillén, 2001; Strange, 1997; Sturdy, 2004). While significant attention has been directed to the role of multinational companies and international joint ventures in the global diffusion of management knowledge (see for example Child ampentity Rodrigues, 1996; Kostova ampentity Roth, 2002), another group of actors characterized as important conduits and bridges for the international flow of business knowledge are management consultancies (Bessant ampentity Rush, 1995; Morris, 2000). Consultants are seen as important diffusion agents due to their adeptness at popularizing management fashions and transforming abstract concepts into commercial products that are sold to a broad management clientele (Clark ampentity Fincham, 2002; Kipping ampentity Engwall, 2002). Moreover, in their role as fashion setters, consultants are argued to affect the types of ideas that are diffused and the preferred models of organizational restructuring (Abrahamson, 1991, 1996; DiMaggio ampentity Powell, 1983; Huczynski, 1993). With the growth of management consultancies into large, globalized service organizations with thousands of staff located in offices around the world, their impact on the international spread of new management knowledge appears significant (O’Shea ampentity Madigan, 1997). Indeed, management consultants have been portrayed as leading examples of the so-called ‘cosmocracy’, a new global business elite who trade in and promote the model of a seamless, global economy (Micklethwait ampentity Wooldridge, 2003).
