Consulting business models in the digital era

Abstract

Consulting research and consulting practice needs to think beyond digitalization. Consulting business models for a digital ecosystem are requested but can rarely be found in the relevant literature and the market. Coping with legacy systems and shifting historical strategy decisions is still on the agenda of many consulting projects. This paper aims to deliver a scientific building block to the consulting business by exploring the consulting processes and methods in the digitalized age. Based on semi-structured interviews with different kinds of consulting firms, a multiple case study has been designed. As our research shows, Digital Transformation has a substantial impact on consulting research and consulting in practice. Both have to be reconsidered in the digital context, for instance concerning business models, science and data-driven methods or rapid prototyping. The authors aim - practically - to deliver a Business Model Canvas for future consulting and to create an explanatory model for the information system-centric perspective on business model research. © 2018 Universitatsverlag Gottingen. All rights reserved.