Defining Management Consulting and Exploring Its Knowledge Creation Potential

This article proposes a definition of management consulting, which aims to identify the distinctive features of this particular service activity and emphasizes the mainly cognitive nature of its value-creation potential. The proposed framework is corroborated by revealing (though short) anecdotal evidence. It highlights the fact that the potential of entrepreneurial knowledge creation of management consulting (and the consultant-client relational dynamics it triggers) lies in the possibility that it can generate new entrepreneurial knowledge, such as new interpretative skills and new experience-based capabilities. The value of this knowledge for both the client and consultant goes far beyond the solution of the specific problem for which the consultant was engaged.