[AISWorld] Last Call for Papers: Book on "Advances in Consulting Research"

Thu Mar 23 08:24:42 EDT 2017

CALL  FOR  PAPERS

for an edited book entitled
“Advances in consulting research”

Editor: Volker Nissen
Chair of Business & Information Systems Engineering in Services
University of Technology Ilmenau, Germany
https://www.tu-ilmenau.de/wid/
volker.nissen at tu-ilmenau.de<mailto:volker.nissen at tu-ilmenau.de>

About the Editor:
Prof. Nissen has more than twelve years of practical experience in IT-consulting. Since 2005 he holds the Chair of Business & Information Systems Engineering in Services at the University of Technology Ilmenau, Germany. Consulting Research is one of his main focus areas in academic research. Ilmenau is one of the top 5 educators in Business Informatics at University level in Germany, according to the 2016 survey of Wirtschaftswoche.
In 2007 Prof. Nissen published the book “Consulting Research – Looking at Consulting from a Scientific Perspective” (published in German by Gabler/DUV, Wiesbaden, Germany) that can be considered a predecessor of this edited volume.

Publisher: SpringerNature
Book is scheduled to be published in late 2017 or early 2018.

Theme of the Book:
Unlike most other sectors consultancy has recorded significant dynamic growth over the last few decades. Despite its great economic relevance and the fact that many young professionals are attracted to consulting as a career opportunity, the scientific community that looks at consulting from an academic perspective is still comparatively small. Moreover, there are few dedicated outlets to publish research on consulting.
There are many useful points of contact between practical consulting and a scientific research discipline dealing with consultancy (Consulting Research). This closeness calls for a fruitful, mutual relationship where both sides benefit from that cooperation. Recently, the classical delivery model of consulting is challenged by new, digitized approaches, such as crowdsourced consulting, IT platforms for procurement/staffing, and self-service consulting. A digital transformation process of the consulting industry is in progress. In this situation, many interesting research questions arise that are of immediate practical relevance.
The present book aims at bringing together some cutting edge research contributions on consulting in one volume. It can be considered a building block toward making the current state of art in the field of Consulting Research more accessible, stimulating improved practice in business, as well as advancing research on the science side. The articles in this book will look at consulting from different angles. Contributions may analyze the various fields and approaches of consulting, consulting providers, clients and markets, as well as technologies and trends in consulting.
The book will be beneficial reading for consultants who want to critically reflect on their own methods and approaches in light of scientific results. It will be a helpful orientation for students of Management and IT-related courses of study, who either think about a professional career in consulting, or want to be reflective clients of consultants. Finally, a collection of state-of-the-art results will foster future contributions in this important research field.

Topics of Contributions:
Basically all topics related to the general theme of the book are acceptable. Examples include, but are not limited to the following issues:
I Consulting Research as a Discipline

•        Interaction between Consulting Research and Consulting Practice

•        Structuring Consulting Research

•        Institutionalizing Consulting Research: Experience and Perspective

II General Issues in Consulting:

•        Why consulting?

•        Consultants as change agents in client organizations

•        The interrelationship of consultants and clients at the personal and organizational level

•        How to succeed in the War-for-talents in consulting

•        Work-Life-Balance in Consulting

•        Consulting success and failure

•        Project types and complexity issues

•        Creation of consulting methods, tools and other artifacts

III Consulting Fields and Approaches

•        External versus Inhouse-Consulting

•        Differences in strategies, methods and tools relating either to the consulting field (strategy, organization, IT, HR) or the consulting approach (assessments, expert consulting, coaching etc.)

•        Lessons from Consulting-related fields (such as legal advice or auditing)

IV Consulting Processes and Management

•        Consulting organization and processes, process management in consulting

•        Knowledge management in consulting

•        Quality management in consulting

V Consulting Clients & Market

•        The customer view on consulting (trust development, selection of consultants, evaluation of results etc.)

•        Client professionalization

•        Trends and Developments in the consulting market

•        Comparing the situation in different countries and consulting markets

VI Future of Consulting

•        Crowdsourcing and consulting

•        How digitization will influence the consulting market

•        How digitization will influence the organization, processes, methods and tools of consulting companies

•        Digital business model innovations in consulting, Self-Service-Consulting

Empirical as well as design-oriented research is welcome. The book is open to different scientific disciplines (such as management research, psychology, information systems research).

Contributions:
Research papers should have approx. 15 – 25 pages. They must include a clear research question related to the theme of the book, outline the research methodology and discuss the results at an academic level.
All contributions must be in English language. A Word-template will be provided to prospective authors after
acceptance of the abstract. Original research is preferred. However, as the book intends to collect state-of-the-art contributions on all facets of Consulting Research, submissions may have been published before. In this case, they must be substantially revised in order to avoid a copyright infringement. The copyright will have to be transferred to SpringerNature by the corresponding author of each contribution.

Schedule for Contributors:

•        Prospective authors are asked to contact the editor as early as possible and send an Extended Abstract of 1 – 4 pages until 31. March.2017. The abstract must clearly communicate the core contribution of the intended paper and the methodology used to reach the results. Authors will be informed within a few days whether the intended contribution fits the edited volume or not.

•        Prospective authors are required to submit a full paper until 14. May. 2017. All submissions undergo an editorial review process, based on thematic conformity with the general theme of the book, originality and quality.

•        Information about acceptance/rejection of papers or required revisions will be sent out until 12 June 2017.

•        Final versions of papers are due on 10. July 2017.

Please feel free to forward this CfP to interested colleagues. If questions arise regarding the submission deadline or potential topics, please contact the editor at  volker.nissen at tu-ilmenau.de<mailto:volker.nissen at tu-ilmenau.de> .

This call is also available via our website at: https://www.tu-ilmenau.de/wid/book-consulting-research/

With best wishes,
Volker Nissen
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Univ.-Prof. Dr. Volker Nissen
Chair of Business & Information Systems Engineering in Services

University of Technology Ilmenau
Faculty of Economic Sciences and Media
Institute of Business & Information Systems Engineering
P.O. Box 10 05 65
D-98684 Ilmenau
Germany

Phone.: +49 (0) 3677 69-4043      (Sec.: -4047    Mrs G. Franz)
Fax.: +49 (0) 3677 69-4219
volker.nissen at tu-ilmenau.de
http://www.tu-ilmenau.de/wid
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