Digital transformation affects all industries. This study targets how management consulting companies address this phenomenon. Based on a survey of 30 Romanian management consulting companies and a qualitative comparative analysis, we model the relationship between management consulting companies’ current context (customers’ industries, internal and external triggers for digital transformation), the current state of digital transformation, and expected digital transformation. By considering managerial expectations importance in future decisions, and contingency theory for explaining the links between context, current state and expected digital transformation, different paths concerning digital transformation are identified at Romanian management consulting companies. For some of them, the combination of internal and external triggers and the existence of previous digital transformation activities led to increases in the recognized importance of digital transformation in future business models and to newer business services (digital strategy). For others, which do not have powerful external triggers, digital transformation is associated with internal efficiency–related triggers, and it targets only improvements in existing business models due to technology adoption (technology strategy). A small number of management consulting companies do not expect digital transformation to have a large impact on their future business model, because of either the lack of external triggers to do so or the absence of previous digital transformation activities. This research demonstrates the contingency and evolutionary nature of the digital transformation process, in which specific combinations between internal and external triggers can explain the expectations of management consulting companies’ managers about digital transformation.

数字化转型影响所有行业。本研究针对管理咨询公司如何解决这一现象。基于对 30 家罗马尼亚管理咨询公司的调查和定性比较分析，我们对管理咨询公司的当前背景（客户的行业、数字化转型的内部和外部触发器）、数字化转型的当前状态以及预期之间的关系进行建模。数字化转型。通过考虑管理期望在未来决策中的重要性，以及解释上下文、当前状态和预期数字化转型之间联系的权变理论，罗马尼亚管理咨询公司确定了有关数字化转型的不同路径。对于其中一些人来说，内部和外部触发因素的结合以及先前数字化转型活动的存在，导致人们越来越认识到数字化转型在未来商业模式和更新商业服务（数字化战略）中的重要性。对于其他没有强大外部触发因素的人来说，数字化转型与内部效率相关的触发因素相关联，并且它仅针对由于技术采用（技术战略）而改进现有业务模式。少数管理咨询公司预计数字化转型不会对其未来的商业模式产生重大影响，因为缺乏这样做的外部触发因素或之前没有数字化转型活动。