The Management Consultancy Business in Italy

This thesis presents a study of the management consultancy business in the Italian context. It analyses the relationship between the consulting industry and the national environment with respect to three different issues: the historical development of the industry, the market structure at the turn of the century and the operations of selected consulting firms. In particular, the thesis examines whether and how the consulting industry has adapted to the specificity of the Italian context. Italy has been chosen, because it represents a "strong" case for analysis, in the sense that it entails very distinctive national features; it should therefore be possible to detect their impact and verify to what extent this is reflected in the evolution, structure and operations of the consultancy business.