글로벌 컨설팅 시장 규모는 4.5%의 연평균 성장률을 기록하여 2027년까지 108억 8,000만 달러에 이를 것으로 전망되고 있으나 국내 영세한 규모의 중소형 컨설팅사는 다양성과 영세성, 새로운 영역에 대한 R&D 인력 부족으로 인한 여러 어려움을 겪고 있다. 본 연구에서는 중소형 컨설팅사의 경쟁력 확보를 위해 컨설턴트의 커뮤니케이션에 대한 연구에 초점을 맞추고 있으며, 이를 통해 서비스품질에 유의한 영향이 있는지와 더 나아가 조직특성 및 컨설팅 성과에도 영향을 미치고 있는지에 대해서 연구해 보고자 하였다. 연구 결과 컨설턴트의 커뮤니케이션이 서비스품질과 조직특성에 정(+)의 영향을 나타내었고, 서비스품질과 조직특성이 컨설팅 성과에도 정(+)의 영향을 나타내었다. 반면 컨설턴트의 커뮤니케이션이 컨설팅 성과에 직접적인 영향을 미치지 않는 것으로 나타났으나 경로분석을 통하여 서비스품질과 조직특성 각각의 간접효과가 있는 것으로 나타났다. 본 연구를 통하여 컨설턴트의 커뮤니케이션은 컨설팅 산업의 장기적인 발전과 성장을 위해 보다 많은 투자와 관심이 필요하며 직무스킬과 더불어 컨설팅 수행 내용을 보다 설득력있게 전달할 수 있는 훈련 프로그램과 교육 프로그램 개발이 중요하다는 것을 제시하였다.
Consulting is recognized as a knowledge-based high value-added industry and an industry with a large front-rear chain effect on the entire industry, and the importance and demand for consulting are expanding. Looking at the size of the global consulting market, it is expected to reach $10.88 billion by 2027 with an average annual growth rate of 4.5% between 2021 and 2027 from $8.0185 billion in 2020. In the consulting market, demand is continuously increasing due to changes in the business environment of companies and needs. Many SMEs are making efforts to cope with changes in the external environment, but the reality is that there is a limit to solving the issues faced by companies themselves due to limitations in internal resources and management resources (Ryu Jae-hee, 2017). In addition, the government has prepared support measures to foster the consulting industry, contributing to the foundation of the consulting industry and expanding demand, and is promoting consulting support projects for SMEs through the Korea SMEs and Startups Agency. The domestic management consulting market has recorded a growth rate of more than 20% since 1990, and the scale is expanding. However, in the domestic consulting market, global consulting companies with international experience, information networks, and large-scale capital investments are led, and domestic consulting companies are small and do not secure competitiveness in competition with global consulting companies. The quality of consulting services is insufficient due to the diversity, smallness, and lack of R&D personnel in the consulting field of small domestic consulting companies, which is causing Sujin companies to lose confidence in domestic consulting companies. Therefore, this paper aims to create an empirical research model in the relationship between the influence of service quality, organizational characteristics, and consulting performance of consultants in the reality of the changing consulting market based on existing previous studies. In addition, we would like to present a research model that can verify how the communication of consultants, which is a limitation of previous studies, affects the performance of consulting, and ways to increase consulting performance. This study focuses on research on the communication of consultants to secure the competitiveness of small and medium-sized consulting companies, and further studies whether there is a significant effect on service quality and furthermore, organizational characteristics and consulting performance. As a result of the study, the communication of consultants showed a positive (+) effect on service quality and organizational characteristics, and the service quality and organizational characteristics also showed a positive (+) effect on consulting performance. On the other hand, it was found that the consultant's communication did not directly affect the consulting performance, but there was an indirect effect of each service quality and organizational characteristic through path analysis. Through this study, consultants' communication requires more investment and attention for the long-term development and growth of the consulting industry, and it is important to develop training programs and education programs that can convey consulting performance more convincingly along with job skills.