Beauty in the eye of the beholder? A client-centric framework for the assessment of professional service firms knowledge assets

Abstract

Purpose – This empirical paper explores how professional competence s are defined and assessed by clients of professional service firms . Ex tant research ha s captured how t he formal knowledge base of professionals establis h and maintain the credibility and elite status of professio nals . However, assessing professional competence is often difficult due to the knowledge asymmetry bet ween clients and professionals and individual formal knowledge and firm reputation are commonly used as proxies. At the same time, there is surprisingly little empirical research that focuses directly on how knowledge resource s are assessed from a client’s point of view. To address this disparity we ask : How is knowledge valuated and valued by clients of professional service firms ?