This dissertation examines the emergence and evolution of professional service industries which are characterized by the exchange of costly products whose quality and effectiveness are difficult to measure. While buyers of these services can potentially avoid costly measurement and contracting activities by performing these services in-house, the burgeoning professional service sector indicates that these functions are routinely outsourced. In my first study, I investigate the emergence of the advertising industry and propose a framework to explain this paradox using historical qualitative and quantitative data from the emergent era of advertising (1880-1920). The proposed framework suggests that the advertising industry's emergence was driven by two factors; the development of inter-organizational trust between agencies and advertisers, and the rapid accumulation of advertising knowledge accumulated by agencies during this transition period. These two factors decreased the perceived likelihood of agency opportunism, lowered transaction costs, and motivated advertisers to outsource their critical marketing functions. In my second related study, I investigate the source of knowledge in professional service firms. The key question I aim to answer is whether a professional service firm's knowledge-based capabilities are primarily embedded within its human capital or within its organizational structures and routines. I empirically test these competing perspectives by examining how spin-offs impacted the survival of parent and progeny firms in the advertising industry from 1924-1996. My results suggest that spin-offs have a significant negative impact on parent firms while they provide a small benefit to the corresponding progeny firms. Furthermore, despite the creative attributes of advertising work product, it is the departure of executives in supporting organizational functions, rather than the loss of creative executives, that drives this effect.
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机译：Litchfield心理咨询模型以哲学为基础，将精神健康服务应用程序Lift Up UP，旨在提供简单，实用的建议，以帮助个人和员工应对日常的精神健康挑战，并将用户与现有的精神健康专业人员联系起来。 Lift me UP将使用先进的技术来：•协助患者评估过程•监控和支持日常工作•将用户推荐给可用的心理健康专家•与市场上的任何产品相比，创造独特的定制体验。
