Although its effectiveness has been questioned, over the past 30 years diversity training has become common practice in the corporate arena, as a myriad of workforce differences has gained increasing attention. The emphasis of this training has evolved from compliance-oriented content (mid-1960s to early 1980s) to improving working relationships (mid-1980s to mid-1990s) to a more recent focus o…
We analyze changes over time in the types of consulting firms offering total quality management services. When TQM was a booming management fashion, consultants tended to be generalists with weak links to the technical foundations of the practice; after the fashion went bust, TQM consulting was increasingly populated by specialists with quality control expertise. These results suggest that fash…
This research examines the dyadic dynamics of positioning (i.e., determining where to locate relative to rivals) of services by consulting firms. Positioning near to or far from competitors offers both advantages and disadvantages in terms of competition, legitimacy, uncertainty, and spillovers, with recent research suggesting that firms seek balance between these various forces. Using a sample…