Enhancing Intangible Resources in Professional Service Firms: A Comparative Study of How Competence Development Takes Place in Four Firms

Abstract

Over the last two decades, there has been a tremendous interest in knowledge, or competence, as the principal source of value creation and economic rent. Inspired by this current, this research project started from curiosity as to how such competence resources are developed. Professional service firms (PSFs) were found particularly interesting to study, as they are highly knowledge-intensive, compete on competence in both markets for clients and employees, and are seen as role models of competent practice. Therefore, this study set out to investigate how competence development (CD) takes place in PSFs.