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Research on professional service purchasing generally takes a culturally universalistic approach, implicitly assuming the generalizability of research findings and normative models to different cultural contexts. However, research in related disciplines points to the influence of national culture on managers' decisions, thereby questioning the culturally universalistic approach. The purpose of this paper is to explore differences in professional service purchasing in different cultural contexts. Based on a survey of large organizations, we analyze how the purchasing process for a specific type of professional services - management consulting services - is organized in two cultural contexts (i.e. Germany and Sweden). The results indicate that organizations in Germany and Sweden differ in the way they approach key aspects of the purchasing process. These differences are discussed in relation to two central cultural dimensions - uncertainty avoidance and masculinity-femininity - in which Germany and Sweden take very different positions. It is proposed that uncertainty avoidance mainly influences the first steps in the purchasing process (specify, select and contract) whereas masculinity-femininity mainly influences the remaining steps (order, expedite and evaluate). The paper contributes to the purchasing and supply management literature by empirically illustrating differences in purchasing practices in different cultural contexts and developing theory-driven propositions for the influence of national culture on the professional service purchasing process.

The current paper investigates the use of management consultants in the Swedish public sector. Based on an analysis of the use of management consulting services in 55 Government agencies (GAs) in the years 2004-2011 the paper makes a number of contributions. First it confirms an overall growth of the use of consulting services in the public sector. However, it also shows that the use of consulting services and its growth are unevenly distributed across organizations, where GAs with a highly professionalized work force are less heavy users of consulting services than regular GAs. The study also points at temporal variations in GAs use of consulting services. Here changes in top management, especially the CEO, are identified as initiators of temporary reductions of the use of consulting services.

In order to maintain long-term business relationships, besides offering high quality services and satisfying the customers, on completion of the consulting project the service providers have to implement various after sales marketing activities. Research into the role of after sales marketing activities in the continuation and maintenance of business relationships with the MC services customers has been rare and related mostly to determining the customers’ preferences in relation to a number of marketing activities (Schade, 1996, Barchewitz, Aermbruester, 2004). However, we lack research of the hidden factors that explain what customers’ preferences are in relation to after sales marketing activities. The results of a research carried out on a sample of 110 Croatian company managers indicate that AS marketing activities contributed to the continuation, maintenance and stabilising of the business relationship with the customers. AS marketing activities aimed at the improvement of the results of the service and AS marketing activities that offer a better understanding of the needs of the customers are the ones that most influence the continuation of the business relationship with the customer.

U radu se iznose rezultati empirijskoga istraživanja na uzorku od 110 menadžera hrvatskih poduzeća. Rezultati istraživanja ukazuju na područja poslovanja iz kojih se uslugama poslovnoga savjetovanja koristilo, ciljeve i motive korištenja uslugama, kriterije izbora ponuđača, utjecaj pojedinih donositelja odluke na izbor ponuđača, važnost obilježja procesa i rezultata za korisnika i navike korištenja uslugama poslovnoga savjetovanja. Na osnovi rezultata iznose se posljedice za marketing ponuđača usluga poslovnoga savjetovanja. Ponuđači usluga poslovnog savjetovanja moraju jasno identificirati potrebe i potencijale korisnika i tome prilagoditi uslugu. Komunikacijske aktivnosti ponuđači moraju usmjeriti prema kvalitativnim elementima ponude, posebno prema kompetencijama za rješavanje poslovnoga problema i očekivanim koristima od usluge. Osim toga, rezultati ukazuju i na rijetko korištenje uslugama poslovnoga savjetovanja zbog čega je osobito važno upravljanje kvalitetom potencijala i procesa usluge radi stvaranja povjerenja i zadovoljstva, a time osiguranja dugoročne suradnje s korisnikom., The paper presents the results of an empirical research carried out on a sample of 110 Croatian company managers. The results of the research reveal the business areas for which Management Consulting (MC) Services were provided, the aims and the motives for the employment of these services, the criteria of choice, the influence of individual decision makers on the selection of the service provider, the importance of the services process and results for the customer and the practice of employment of MC Services. The implications of the research results for the marketing of MC Services are also provided. MC Services providers need to clearly identify the needs and the potentials of the customer and adapt their service accordingly. MC Service providers need to direct their communication activities towards the qualitative elements of their offer, especially to their competences in business problem solving and the expected benefi ts from the service. Furthermore, the results indicate that MC Services are rarely used which suggests that it is especially important to engage in quality management of the MC providers’ potentials and processes in order to create an impression of trust and satisfaction thereby securing long-term cooperation with the customer.