Virtual Organizing as a Strategy for the "Big Six" to Stay Competitive in a Global Market

The global auditing business is made up almost exclusively of the “big six” on the supply side; their customers are multinational companies. Trends toward virtualization can be identified in the competition between the “big six”, as illustrated by a case study of one of the players, Coopers & Lybrand. It is clear that the other suppliers are also following this trend, thus possibly canceling out any competitive advantages. In addition to their activities in the global market, all of the “big six” companies also operate nationally. In this case their rivals are national companies which have competitive advantages over the “big six” in the national market, for example in terms of cost. The issue is to find out to what extent virtuality can be used by the “big six” to give them a competitive edge in the national market as well.