Exploring the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on approaches to innovation in the consulting industry: a grounded theory pilot study

• Autor(a) principal: Kamning, Diane Laurette
• Data de Publicação: 2023
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Revista de Administração e Inovação
• Texto Completo: https://www.revistas.usp.br/rai/article/view/220608
• topic: COVID-19 pandemic; Job-To-Be-Done theory; Dynamic capabilities; Telework; Consulting; Innovation opportunities; B2B; Grounded theory

Purpose – There is a significant pressure on consulting businesses to produce innovative solutions and toassist their clients in producing innovative solutions for their organizational problems as well. In addition tothat challenging need to innovate for survival and competition, as other contemporary firms, consultanciesmust face the global changes brought by the outbreak of the coronavirus infection since 2019. This qualitativepilot study aimed at exploring the impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on theapproaches to innovation in the consulting industry.Design/methodology/approach – Triggered from the literature gap on approaches to innovation inconsultancies during the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic, a grounded theory approach was used togenerate a theoretical explanation of how the COVID-19 is affecting the strategies and approaches ofbusinesses in harnessing innovation opportunities from the perspectives of four professionals from aninformation technology (IT) consultancy in the USA.Findings – The findings of this pilot study showed that organizational leaders’ increased responsiveness, aJob-To-Be-Done strategy, organizational support and team adaption are the keys to harvesting dynamiccapabilities for better competition, even during global environmental changes.Practical implications – This implies that managers remain the main actors in a firm’s efforts to harvestdynamic capabilities. Innovation strategists, business leaders and policymakers can confidently work togetherto implement novel and flexible work settings that integrate both social and economic advancements.Originality/value – Theoretical implications support the sustainable innovation strategy concepts and theJob-To-Be-Done theory. Finally, the substantive theory from this pilot study lays the ground for future researchon approaches to innovation in the consulting industry.