Why Do Firms Buy Advice? Client-Side Drivers of Management Consulting Use in Two Post-Transition Economies

Management consulting research has predominantly examined consulting from the supply side, while comparatively little is known about the organizational factors shaping client demand, particularly in post-transition Central and Eastern European (CEE) economies. This study investigates client-side drivers of management consulting use in Hungary and Romania using a sequential explanatory mixed-methods design that combines survey data from 217 organizations (Hungary: n = 152; Romania: n = 65) with semi-structured interviews conducted in 20 organizations (10 per country). The analysis is informed by an integrated framework drawing on transaction cost economics, agency theory, credence-good theory, and absorptive capacity. The findings indicate that firm size and foreign ownership were not significantly associated with consulting uptake in the present sample. Among the participating nonusers, confidentiality concerns received relatively low descriptive ratings, while perceived lack of need and confidence in internal expertise received the highest descriptive ratings, although differences across the seven barriers were not statistically significant and the analysis was based on a limited complete-case subsample. Consulting users reported stronger future consulting intentions than nonusers, while anticipated future demand was most frequently linked to crisis recovery, digitalization, and artificial intelligence. The study contributes to the consulting literature by providing one of the first comparative client-side analyses of consulting demand in two post-transition CEE economies and by identifying theoretically plausible mechanisms that warrant direct empirical testing. The results suggest that structural organizational characteristics alone may provide an incomplete account of consulting demand in these contexts and highlight the need for future research that directly measures institutional, trust-related, and absorptive-capacity mechanisms.