How do consulting firms share knowledge with clients in the Arab world? A cultural embeddedness perspective

ABSTRACT This paper explores the challenges that consulting firms and client firms are facing in knowledge sharing in the context of the Arab management consulting industry, and how local culture works in solving these challenges. Taking knowledge sharing and the cultural embeddedness perspective as the theoretical lens, the study adopts a comparative case study design to explore how mechanisms of cultural contextualisation affect knowledge-sharing behaviours. The findings highlight the benefits of cultural embeddedness in knowledge sharing between consulting firms and client firms through identifying the importance of Wasta (a social network of interpersonal connections) in skill-set formation, follow-on consultancy, niche specialist cultivation, and the establishment of network consulting. Our study provides industry players with a holistic framework to leverage Wasta to achieve knowledge sharing, which sheds light on a neglected cultural aspect in the management consulting industry.