This chapter focuses on the organizational changes arising from the creation of large cross-border legal service organizations and alliance networks. We address the management issues faced by legal professional service firms (PSFs) in responding to the demands placed upon their existing organizational structures and processes by the most recent phase in their international expansion.

This paper reviews the pressures towards globalisation reshaping the corporate law sector. It uses Yip's [Yip, G.S. (1996). Total global strategy (2nd ed.). Englewood-Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall] framework of global industry drivers. The dominant view has been that the globalisation potential of the legal industry is low since there are few global legal products and many regulatory differences between markets. However, within the corporate law sector, strong regulatory differences between countries are outweighed by the combined impact of market, competitive and cost drivers. Evidence from this research shows that the balance of industry drivers is towards there being benefits to the pursuit of global strategies within this sector. In practice, a small number of very large corporate law firms are implementing global strategies in pursuit of specific sources of future competitive advantage. Thus a small 'super-elite' of globalising firms is emerging.

This article explores how professional service firms manage across borders. When clients require consistent services delivered across multiple locations, especially across borders, then firms need to develop an organization that is sufficiently flexible to be able to support such consistent service delivery. Our discussion is illustrated by the globalization process of law firms. We argue that the globalization of large corporate law firms primarily takes place in terms of investments in the development of protocols, processes and practices that enhance internal consistency such that clients receive an ‘effortless experience’ of the service across multiple locations worldwide. Over the longer term the ability to deliver such effortless experience is dependent upon meaningful integration within and across the firm. Firms that achieve this are building a source of sustainable competitive advantage.

Purpose - To identify and discuss the changes arising within very large law firms from the pressure to provide global services and the issues for firms in implementing cross-border integration. Design/methodology/approach - The research is qualitative, case-based and exploratory, using a piloted topic guide. The study is of very large UK "City" law firms (i.e. those operating in over 20 countries) using in-depth semi-structured interviews with: managing partners, senior partners, partners and associates at "City" law firms, clients, US lawyers in London and non-legal professionals. Data are triangulated with information from trade press, trade associations and firm reports. Findings - Identification of managerial issues of global integration common to law firms inter-viewed. These include: a shift to a "managed" firm and decline in professional autonomy; post-acquisition integration and merger process issues; operationalization of global practices (such as common technology platforms, common systems practices, common human resources management practices and cross-border intra-firm working relationships) to achieve consistency throughout the integrated firm. Research limitations/implications - Data set is derived from UK firms only and dependent on respondent views. Findings indicate that law firms have become less distinctive and more like other service businesses. Practical implications - The paper identifies the processes by which consistent cross-border service to the client may be achieved within globally integrated firms. Originality/value - Law is an under-researched industry. This research adds to knowledge of the legal services industry; explores globalization in a professional service firm context; extends the global strategy literature into the services domain. This is also one of the few papers on law firms based on primary data.

Economic and social relations are undergoing radical change, expressed in such concepts as "knowledge economy," "weightless economy," "postindustrial society," and "information society." The literature suggests the arrival of a distinct new factor of production--intellectual capital--replacing or perhaps supplementing land, labor, and capital. We give a historically informed theoretical exposition of capital as the durable result of past production processes, transforming future production while not being transformed itself and associated with a particular economic actor. We then construct a taxonomy of the possible characteristics and location of intellectual capital in postindustrial production

Investors in ventures that threaten to disrupt the markets of incumbents can use the options markets to add value to their investments by purchasing put options on the stock of the disrupted rivals on the basis of their asymmetric knowledge. By making a profit on these derivative trades in the stock of the disrupted firms, the investor innovator is able to recapture from the market extra and immediate profits (equivalent to the value of the consumer surplus) generated by the innovation. These additional profits increase the incentive of investors to invest in disruptive ventures and so correct biases that have been observed against investing disruptive innovation. Our paper provides guidance as to how these effects arise and their value. It also explores the ethical, regulatory and practical constraints on undertaking the trades, pointing out that it is effective and the legality seems to be robust provided certain conditions are met.

The focus of this paper is on issues that arise in the application of QSR NUD*IST and NVivo in management research. Since the most problematic areas in applying NUD*IST and NVivo are in using them for recording, collating, analysing and reporting interview data, this paper concentrates on the use of NUD*IST and NVivo for these purposes. This paper is not concerned with general problems of interviewing nor with technical details of how to use NUD*IST and NVivo but is about the practical problems of interpretation that can arise in applying NUD*IST and NVivo successfully to interview data and how the adoption of particular practices in qualitative data collection or different use of NUD*IST and NVivo can alleviate these problems. The paper examines problems that arise in the use of NUD*IST and NVivo at the different stages (Interviewing, Transcription, Structuring and Reporting) of three types of research project: a major research project, a specialist research project and a doctoral research project. Suggestions are made as to how these problems can be avoided or mitigated. Conclusions are drawn about good practice in the use of NUD*IST and NVivo and suggestions are made on some enhancements that might be made to them. The paper argues that improved NUD*IST and NVivo practice along the lines indicated will lead to more transparent and consistent qualitative analysis which can be seen to conform to accepted standards of management research. Comments are also made about Interpretivism and the use of NUD*IST and NVivo and on the role of supervisors in doctoral research involving the use of NUD*IST and NVivo.

This article explores how professional service firms manage across borders. When clients require consistent services delivered across multiple locations, especially across borders, then firms need to develop an organization that is sufficiently flexible to be able to support such consistent service delivery. Our discussion is illustrated by the globalization process of law firms. We argue that the globalization of large corporate law firms primarily takes place in terms of investments in the development of protocols, processes and practices that enhance internal consistency such that clients receive an ‘effortless experience’ of the service across multiple locations worldwide. Over the longer term the ability to deliver such effortless experience is dependent upon meaningful integration within and across the firm. Firms that achieve this are building a source of sustainable competitive advantage.

Since the most problematic areas in applying NUD*IST and NVivo in management research are in using them for recording, collating, analysing and reporting interview data, this paper concentrates on the use of NUD*IST and NVivo for these purposes. It examines the problems that arise in their use at the different stages (Interviewing, Transcription, Structuring and Reporting) of three types of research project: a major research project, a specialist research project and a doctoral research project. Suggestions are made as to how these problems can be mitigated. Conclusions are drawn about good practice in the use of NUD*IST and NVivo and suggestions are made on some enhancements that might be made to them. Comments are made about Interpretivism and the use of NUD*IST and NVivo and on the role of supervisors in doctoral research involving the use of NUD*IST and NVivo.

Economic and social relations are undergoing radical change, expressed in such concepts as “knowledge economy,” “weightless economy,” “postindustrial society,” and “information society.” The literature suggests the arrival of a distinct new factor of production—intellectual capital—replacing or perhaps supplementing land, labor, and capital. We give a historically informed theoretical exposition of capital as the durable result of past production processes, transforming future production while not being transformed itself and associated with a particular economic actor. We then construct a taxonomy of the possible characteristics and location of intellectual capital in postindustrial production.

It is a widely accepted premise that we are in a midst of a radical change of economic and social relations, associated with terms such as the “knowledge economy”, “weightless economy”, “post-industrial society” or “information society”. The intellectual capital literature appears to suggest the arrival of a distinct factor of production, replacing or supplementing land, labour and capital. Some exponents of intellectual capital analysis see knowledge, ideas, capabilities and skills as a new, perhaps overriding productive factor; others conceive of the changes within a widening of the traditional definition of capital to include business processes, intellectual property, product ideas, even customer loyalty; again others use “intellectual capital” as a rhetorical tool withholding any coherent definition. In this article, we first give a historically informed theoretical exposition of capital as the durable result of past production processes, transforming future production while not being transformed itself, and associated with a particular economic actor. Second, we offer a taxonomy of the perceived characteristics and location of intellectual capital in the production process. Third, we argue that capital, and thus intellectual capital, is not a useful way of theoretically capturing knowledge and ideas

This paper bridges the literature on real options in strategy with that on financial options. It uses insights from both literatures to show how the use of options contracts can encourage innovators to enter markets by mitigating the effects of uncertainty and permitting the capture of greater value from innovation. The dilemma facing a firm trying to secure the successful launch of its innovation is how to set price to achieve market penetration yet still receive an adequate return. The traditional view is that the low price necessary for penetration may yield such poor returns that the innovator is dissuaded from launch. This problem is exacerbated when the innovator is an entrant and faces retaliatory reactions from incumbents. We explore how financial options can mitigate these effects and recapture the "lost" added value. Using financial options can encourage commitment, overcome delay in launch and allow innovators to capture value quickly. Finally, we explore some of the impediments to executing our ideas, discuss when they might be useful to managers and suggest ways in which they can be tested empirically.

This paper bridges the literature on real options in strategy with that on financial options. It uses insights from both literatures to show how the use of options contracts can encourage innovators to enter markets by mitigating the effects of uncertainty and permitting the capture of greater value from innovation. The dilemma facing a firm trying to secure the successful launch of its innovation is how to set price to achieve market penetration yet still receive an adequate return. The traditional view is that the low price necessary for penetration may yield such poor returns that the innovator is dissuaded from launch. This problem is exacerbated when the innovator is an entrant and faces retaliatory reactions from incumbents. We explore how financial options can mitigate these effects and recapture the "lost" added value. Using financial options can encourage commitment, overcome delay in launch and allow innovators to capture value quickly. Finally, we explore some of the impediments to executing our ideas, discuss when they might be useful to managers and suggest ways in which they can be tested empirically.