Studying the Role of Trust-building Capabilities in Making the Business of Management Consulting Firms Dynamic

Document Type : Sterategic Management

Abstract

Nowadays, building effective inter-organizational relationships is an important source of competitive advantage. These relationships can be created between organizations and their suppliers, customers or other stakeholders. Organizations can benefit significantly from strong relationships. There are some factors which have positive effect on creation of these bonds. Inter-organizational trust is one of the key factors which can strengthen inter-organizational relationships. In the present research, we used a capability-based approach and studied the role of trust-building capabilities of management consulting firms of Iran in moderating the relationship between organizational dynamic capabilities and operational capabilities. The statistical population consisted of 340 management consulting firms of Iran which all of them were members of Iran Management Consultants Association. To gather data, a 23 item questionnaire was distributed among the CEOs of these firms. Finally 97 questionnaires were collected. To analyze data, variance-based structural equation modeling was distinguished to be suitable. SmartPLS3 was the software which was used in this regard. The results of our study show that operational capabilities are stronger in firms which have stronger dynamic capabilities. In other words, organizational dynamic capabilities have a significant positive effect on operational capabilities. Moreover, it is found that organizational trust-building capabilities moderate the relationship between organizational dynamic capabilities and operational capabilities.

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