Development of expertise through co-creation in networks: An ethnographic case study from a professional service context

Abstract

Professional service firms are recognized as a still growing sector in modern economies. In professional services, expertise and knowledge are the key resources, and constant development and renewal of the resource base is essential to remain innovative and successful. Vast research and literature on professional services provide insights into how professional service providers use their expertise in collaboration. However, business development occurs in co-creation networks, where professional service providers collaborate with customers and other stakeholders. In these types of co-creation processes, the solution is sought together, utilizing the expertise and knowledge of all participants; this search is also about embracing uncertainty and working without setting an exact goal.

Therefore, focusing explicitly on outlining expertise and what constitutes business-to-business services based on co-creation is needed. Since professional services rely heavily on expertise and are crucial in facilitating knowledge creation in their customers, a more detailed understanding of expertise is needed to successfully collaborate with customers in value co-creation networks. I also argue that the expertise needed when operating in co-creation networks differs from that needed in more traditional development and collaboration processes between professional service provider customers. More precisely, I believe different aspects and expertise areas gain a more prominent role when collaboration occurs in co-creation networks.

My study aims to build an empirically grounded framework of expertise and its development in professional services in today’s ever-more networked business world. To reach the research objective, I have conducted an ethnographic case study of three individual studies and the synthesis part. Adopting ethnography as a research approach allows for building a contextual and detailed understanding of expertise in professional services. The individual studies focus on developing an executive learning community focusing on collective creation, facilitation activities and their role in supporting co-creation, and strategy co-creation between independent consultants in a micro firm context.

The synthesis part of this study integrates the literature and empirical findings of the original studies and introduces the empirical framework and discusses what the expertise consists of in professional services, especially in management consulting, coaching, and business development. The key concepts of service-dominant logic and its view on co-creation - service, value, actors, and resources - are used to highlight the areas of expertise that gain importance when professionals engage in co-creation with customers and other stakeholders. Expertise areas in professional services based on the results of my study are 1) knowledge-based expertise, 2) practice-based expertise, 3) emotional and situational expertise, and 4) a co-creation mindset. The fourth category - a co-creation mindset - can be seen as an area of expertise that guides the collaboration and work of the professionals at the heart of expertise forming the so-called red thread. In the ever more networked, interactional, and joint way of conducting business, developing new solutions, and enabling learning, expertise permitting co-creation is highlighted. It can be argued that the network’s multi-layered nature is a platform for expertise development. Also, varied contexts provide access to myriad resources or arenas for developing practice-based expertise via reflection, which then develops into a part of knowledge-based expertise. In practice, expertise develops through reflection, action, and dialogue.

This study contributes to the professional service literature by providing a nuanced and fine-grained analysis and the categorization of expertise by combining existing literature and the findings of the empirical study. This study increases understanding of the practice of expertise development and discusses the nature of expertise. Expertise results from resource development and experience developed through consciously addressing challenging problems and having the courage to step beyond one’s comfort zone. Expertise is also developed and appreciated in interaction; thus, this study highlights the social aspects of expertise.