Call for Papers
Annual Conference On Professional Service Firms,
5-7 JULY 2015, Saïd Business School, Oxford, UK
25 Years since “P2” – Time to take stock and look to the future of PSF studies.
The July 2015 conference on professional service firms will take the 25th anniversary of Greenwood, Hinings and Brown’s (1990) seminal paper on the “P2” archetype of the professional partnership as an opportunity to take stock and consider the future of PSF studies. Much has happened in the professional service landscape, and its scholarship, during the last 25 years. The “P2” archetype was introduced to account for the “distinctive characteristics” of professional partnerships. But are they still distinctive today? And, if so, in what ways?
The liberalization of the legal market in the UK and elsewhere has led to outside ownership and “Alternative Business Structures”. The resurgent interest in the provision of legal services among the “Big Four” has rekindled debates about multidisciplinary practices. The focus of innovation is increasingly shifting from service to process and business model innovation that goes beyond outsourcing and value chain disintegration to producing entirely new service delivery models, including virtual firms and subscription based payment. The intersection of these trends poses new challenges for leadership, governance, and regulation, but also for the broader question of whether there is still a distinctive PSF archetype or whether we need to shift attention to understanding how PSFs may be different from each other and, in fact, similar to other types of organizations: What can different types of PSFs and organizations learn from each other?
Against this backdrop, we invite scholarly papers from a range of disciplines and academic perspectives on the topic. We welcome contributions from organizational theorists, business historians, communication scholars, evolutionary economists, political scientists, strategists, experts in finance, geographers, and anthropologists. We encourage you to submit studies concerning (but not limited to) the following questions:
- PSFs and their study are far more central to business and business scholarship than they were 25 years ago. What blind-spots remain? Have we fully identified how and why PSFs are distinctive, as well as the consequences of their distinctiveness?
- Is the classification of PSFs as a distinct category masking important differences between PSFs? How are today’s PSFs different from each other – and similar to other organizations? What can they potentially learn from each other?
- In light of the current liberalization and internationalization of professional services, what is the relationship between PSFs and their institutional and regulatory environments? Is professional self-regulation still a viable model? What are the alternatives?
- What do these trends mean for the governance and leadership of PSFs? Are there new archetypes emerging or are we facing an increasing diversity of PSF models?
- What is the focus of PSF innovation these days – and how is it delivered?
- Finally, how are PSFs accommodating the shifting preferences and priorities of their professional workforce? What challenges and opportunities do “millennials” pose for the management of PSFs and how do firms respond?
Submissions
Please send an abstract of approximately 1,000 words to Bryn Harris at novakdruce.centre@sbs.ox.ac.uk by Friday, 6 March 2015. Abstracts will be reviewed and decisions made before the end of March.
Timing & Venue
The 2015 Conference will take place immediately after the annual meeting of the European Group of Organization Studies (EGOS) in Athens. The conference will be held at Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford.
The Journal of Professions and Organization
The conference will partner with the Journal of Professions and Organization (JPO), which is planning to dedicate a Special Issue to the conference theme. The JPO was launched in 2013 by Oxford University Press to further research on professionals and their organizations. The Novak Druce Centre is sponsoring JPO’s 2014/15 Best Paper Award, and the winners will be recognized during a short ceremony at the Conference. JPO editor, David Brock (dmb@bgu.ac.il), will attend the conference to encourage potential submissions to the journal.
Additional Information
There is no fee for registration, accommodation, or meals for those who are invited to attend, but all delegates will be expected to cover their own travel costs. Further information will be made available to participants via the conference website in early 2015 once the decisions have been made.
Michael Smets & Christopher McKenna
Novak Druce Centre for Professional Service Firms
Saïd Business School, University of Oxford
