25 Years since P2: Taking Stock and Charting the Future of Professional Firms

In this article, we introduce the theme of the special issue, reviewing and analyzing 25 years of the professional partnership, or P2, stream of research. We structure our analysis around the three dimensions of control that structured the original P2 paper strategic, operating, and financial control—and their underlying drivers: knowledge intensity, professionalized workforce, and low capital intensity. We then introduce the five papers selected for the special issue, positioning each relative to the conceptual scheme of the research field as a whole. We then identify a set of themes that are poised to dominate professional firm research for the next quarter century—namely internationalization, changing career and work–life preferences, de/re/regulation, and technology. These analyses lead us to a new set of PSF dimensions, which we present as an emerging picture of this dynamic field of research and practice.