Consultancy and Innovation: The Business Service Revolution in Europe

Consultancy and Innovation links two important aspects of European economic development in the past 30 years: the pace of technical and management innovation and the growing significance of consultancy. The rapid expansion of specialist technical and business consultancy, evident in every country, has affected the nature and rate of innovation, amongst all its clients. One crucial development has been the internationalisation of consultancy, opening-up economies to global influences on business change. Another feature of consultancy growth, like innovation, is its uneven impact between countries and the regions within them. Whilst consultancy expertise increasingly influences innovative change, it is also polarizing economic opportunities within Europe. Consultancy and Innovation reviews in detail the recent evidence for the impacts of consultancy use. It includes eight chapters on specific EU countries, written by national experts in the field. These are Belgium, France, Germany, The Netherlands, the UK, Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain.