Professional Service Firms

Our research cluster seeks to explore key challenges confronting the professional services sector.

We are concerned with the professional firm as a distinct organisational form and the impact of this on processes of innovation and change. We are interested in the development and management of professional expertise and ethics, and examine social and formal processes by which these are nurtured and regulated. Research projects are focused around the observation and management of firms, the issues faced by people working within them and policy issues of concern to both clients and regulators.

Our members sit on the editorial board of several academic journals, including the Journal of Professions and Organization (JPO), and our work has been published in leading international journals as well as prize-winning monographs. The teaching team is also well known for its work in executive education and advisory work with professional firms.

Oxford Saïd conference on Professional Service Firms

A partnership between Saïd Business School and the Journal of Professions and Organization, this conference has taken place annually since 2015. In 2021, the conference examined how we can manage integration, integrity and Identity at the boundaries of professional practice.