How do new professional service firms strategically position themselves in fields where developing a favourable external reputation is critical to performance? Are certain positioning strategies more effective than others? This study reveals that most professional service firm start-ups attempt...

The paper examines the stated reasons for recent mergers between members of the (former) Big Eight accounting firms. The reasons are expressed in terms of hypotheses about the perceived advantages of very large size and the hypotheses are tested using 1986-9 data from the top 1000 Canadian...

Growing interest in knowledge as a competitive asset suggests the benefit of studying professional service firms (PSFs). These firms are highly successful examples of organizations whose ability to manage knowledge is critical to their success. Furthermore, they are worthy of study because they...