Factors Explaining the Skills Transfer in Consulting Missions

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to identify the factors that influence skills transfer from a consultant to a client during a consulting mission. A generic model is proposed in order to show the main factors in the context of an emerging country (Tunisia). Indeed, most works on this subject were performed in developed countries and involved the skills transfer in specific projects such as Enterprise Resources Planning (ERP) or research and development projects. This paper deals with three influencing factors that were addressed from previous works. Those factors are associated to: (1) the consultant, (2) the client and (3) the characteristics of skills to be transferred.

To test the proposed model, a questionnaire is developed and then addressed to projects managers in 31 Tunisian firms that have recourse to external consultants' services. The collected data are analyzed using Partial Least Squares (PLS) method.

The results of data analyses allow concluding that skills transfer is more influenced by factors related to the consultant (project management capabilities, communication competencies and industry experience) as well as the causal ambiguity of skills to be transferred.