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The Changing Dynamics Within Management Consulting: How Digital Business Models and Gig Workers has Disrupted a Traditional Industry
KTH, School of Industrial Engineering and Management (ITM).
KTH, School of Industrial Engineering and Management (ITM).
2022 (English)Independent thesis Advanced level (degree of Master (Two Years)), 20 credits / 30 HE creditsStudent thesisAlternative title
Den föränderliga Dynamiken Inom Management Consulting : Hur Digitala Affärsmodeller och Frilansare Har Stört en Traditionell Bransch (Swedish)
Abstract [en]

As the gig economy is growing at a rapid pace and digitalization has spread throughout the management consulting industry, a notable disruption of this traditional industry has occurred. Digitalization in the management consulting industry has affected both how the management consultant does his/her job as well as how the connection between consultant and client and the relationship between colleagues constitutes. Digitalization also facilitates remote working, which has after the Covid-19 pandemic become a high priority. This in turn has enabled the growth of the gig economy and the increasing number of gig worker. Digital gig platforms acting as a meetingplace have increased in both numbers and popularity as well as digital service platforms providing digital tools with the help of SaaS or AI to deliver a more complex solution to the customer. The disruption of the management consulting industry has only begun and therefor it is a need to analyze the way this industry works today and discuss how the industry has adapted to digitalization. Therefor the purpose of this master thesis is to increase the knowledge of how the progress of digital business models affect the management consulting industry by answering the two research questions: “How has the management consulting industry within the area of organizational development been disrupted by the increasing amount of independent workers using gig platforms?” and “How has digitized Service platforms in the area of organizational development changed the traditional management consulting business model?”. This master thesis is conducted through a literature review and semi structured interviews. What can be concluded is that the management consulting industry has been disrupted by the digital platforms in a way that has put pressure on the larger traditional management consulting companies, more digital platforms are created and an increasing number of gig workers have resulted in collaborations between freelancers and traditional management consulting companies. It is also seen that traditional management consulting companies are adopting other business model alternatives that includes solutions based on AI or cloud solutions. 

Abstract [sv]

I och med att gigekonomin växer i en snabb takt och digitaliseringen har spridit sig genom hela managementkonsultindustrin har en tydlig påverkan skett på denna traditionella industri. Digitaliseringen i managementkonsultindustrin har påverkat både hur managementkonsulter utför sitt jobb och kopplingen mellan konsulten och klienten samt vad relationen mellan kollegor har för funktion. Digitalisering gynnar även distansarbete, som efter Covid-19 pandemin har fått en allt högre prioritet på arbetsplatser. Detta har i sin tur medfört en växande gigekonomi med ett ökat antal gigarbetare. Digitala gigplattformar som fungerar som mötesplatser har ökat både i antal och popularitet, likaså digitala serviceplattformar som tillhandahåller digitala verktyg som till exempel SaaS- och AI-lösningar för att kunna tillhandahålla en mer komplex lösning till kunden. Den påverkan som gigekonomi har haft på  managementkonsultindustrin är i början av utvecklingen, vilket skapar ett behov av att industrin och hur denna fungerar idag analyseras, samt diskutera hur industrin har anpassat sig till digitaliseringen. Därför är syftet med detta examensarbete att öka kunskapen kring hur utvecklingen av digitala affärsmodeller påverkat managementkonsultindustrin genom att svara på de två forskningsfrågorna: ”Hur har managementkonsultindustrin inom området organisationsutveckling blivit förändrad av det ökade antalet gigarbetare som använder sig av digitala plattformar” och ”Hur har digitala serviceplattformar inom området organisationsutveckling ändrat de traditionella managementkonsulternas affärsmodeller”. Detta examensarbete utfördes med hjälp av en litteraturstudie samt genom semistrukturerade intervjuer. Slutsatsen som kan dras från detta examensarbete är att managementkonsultindustrin har blivit påverkad av digitala plattformar och därmed har satt press på de större traditionella managementkonsultföretagen, fler digitala plattformar skapas och ett ökat antal av gigarbetare har resulterat i en ökning av samarbeten mellan frilansare och traditionella konsultföretag. Resultatet visar vidare att fler traditionella managementkonsultföretag anpassar sig till andra affärsmodellsalternativ som innefattar lösningar baserade på AI eller molntjänster. 

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2022. , p. 89
Series
TRITA-ITM-EX ; 2022:338
Keywords [en]
Management consulting, gig economy, digital platform, gig worker, independent worker, digitalization, disruptive innovation, digital tools
Keywords [sv]
Gigekonomi, digital plattform, managementkonsult, gigarbetare, gigare, frilansare, digitalisering, disruptiv innovation, digitala verktyg
National Category
Engineering and Technology
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-317665OAI: oai:DiVA.org:kth-317665DiVA, id: diva2:1695740
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Available from: 2022-09-14 Created: 2022-09-14 Last updated: 2022-09-14Bibliographically approved

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