This literature review investigates factors influencing the choice and future buying intentions for transactional legal services at large law firms. In doing so, two marketing concepts, namely perceived service value and commitment are integrated and their relationships examined.
There are two parts to this literature review. Part 1 draws on the services marketing literature and reviews past research on legal services’ credence attributes, future buying intentions, perceived value and affective and calculative commitment with particular focus on professional services. This part serves to gain a better understanding of the conceptual elements more broadly that would otherwise have been dismissed.
Part 2 discusses the results of the systematic literature review undertaken on future buying intentions/the choice of legal services and large law firms. The words “choice” and “future buying intentions” are used interchangeably, implying the equivalent meaning in this context. The systematic literature review was conducted in addition to Part 1 because very little academic research on legal services could be found. It served to further circumstantiate and identify elements that are relevant in the legal context.
From my findings there are commonly scholars from four different academic disciplines who examine particular aspects of the legal industry, i.e. legal scholars, economists, marketing scholars and sociologists. While legal scholars frequently discuss and analyze the law and ethical aspects of lawyering, economists often focus on the growth of law firms and emphasize the asymmetry of information between customers and service providers. Marketing scholars typically seek to understand particular constructs such as client-attorney relationships, satisfaction or service quality and identify choice criteria in determining the essence of particular constructs from a consumer’s and/or corporate client’s perspective. Sociologists on the other hand often study the legal profession as a whole. Studies concerned with buying intentions in the legal context usually address the value of legal services in general, law firm growth and/or decision-making. Prior empirical research that focuses on purchasing-decisions for transactional legal work at large law firms or legal work at law firms in general, is scant and mostly undertaken in the United States.
Inhaltsverzeichnis (Table of Contents)
- Introduction
- What is transactional legal work at large law firms?
- Part 1: Services marketing and professional services
- Method to identifying the relevant literature
- Inclusion and exclusion criteria
- Synthesizing qualitative and quantitative research on buying intentions and/or choice for legal services at large law firms
- Finding: Law firms and their capacity insurance
- Finding: The complexity of legal work
- Finding: Legal fees and special arrangements
- Finding: The nature of client-attorney relationships
- Finding: The value of firm and individual reputation
- Finding: Globalization and the demand for consistent legal services
- Additional findings: Underlying trends frequently discussed in the literature considered
- The impact of the reduction in asymmetric information
- The changing role of in-house counsel
- Outsourcing legal work to lower cost providers
- Identified gaps in Part 1 and Part 2
- Conclusion
Zielsetzung und Themenschwerpunkte (Objectives and Key Themes)
This literature review examines factors influencing the choice and future buying intentions for transactional legal services at large law firms. It focuses on two marketing concepts: perceived service value and commitment (affective and calculative commitment), and their relationship. The review is divided into two parts, exploring both services marketing and professional services.
- To gain a better understanding of the conceptual elements of perceived value and commitment in the broader context of services marketing.
- To conduct a systematic literature review on buying intentions of legal services at large law firms.
- To identify and describe the themes and factors related to future buying intentions of legal services at large law firms, as explored by different academic disciplines.
- To analyze trends that have impacted the legal market as a whole.
- To understand the nature of transactional legal work at large law firms and its complexities.
Zusammenfassung der Kapitel (Chapter Summaries)
The introduction lays out the objectives of the review, emphasizing the importance of understanding the factors influencing corporate clients' purchasing decisions for transactional legal services. It discusses the scarcity of academic research in this area and highlights the diverse perspectives of different academic disciplines.
The first chapter explores services marketing and its application to professional services, specifically transactional legal services. It examines the characteristics that distinguish services from goods, arguing that these characteristics may not apply universally to legal services. It emphasizes the unique characteristics of professional services, requiring specialized training and expertise.
The second chapter delves into the systematic literature review, focusing on qualitative and quantitative research evidence on buying intentions for legal services at large law firms. It aims to identify the themes and factors commonly explored by different academic disciplines, such as legal scholars, economists, marketing scholars, and sociologists, in relation to future buying intentions for legal services at large law firms.
Schlüsselwörter (Keywords)
The keywords for this review include: transactional legal services, large law firms, purchasing intentions, perceived service value, commitment, affective commitment, calculative commitment, services marketing, professional services, client-attorney relationships, legal market trends, asymmetric information, in-house counsel, outsourcing, corporate clients, buying behavior, and decision-making processes.
- Citar trabajo
- Dr. Katja Friedrich (Autor), 2017, Transactional Legal Services and Corporations' Buying Intentions, Múnich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/385687
