Entre influencias internacionales y tradiciones nacionales: las consultoras de empresa en la España del siglo XX

Abstract

This article examines the evolution of the Spanish consulting industry and market during the twentieth century in an international context. It shows that Spain experienced a similar development compared to other industrialised countries, in terms of three distinguishable, but overlapping waves or "generations" of the consulting industry: scientific management, strategy and structure, information and communication. At the same time, there were marked differences in terms of the somewhat belated onset of the first and, especially the second wave and in terms of durations, with scientific management remaining pre-eminent well into the 1970s. Only the more recent developments, i.e. the increasing domination of IT-related, global consulting firms since the late 1980s, are almost identical to other countries. Based on a conceptual framework of how consulting works as a business activity, the final part of the article identifies a number of reasons for these differences in the Spanish "systemic context