Towards a knowledge-based taxonomy for value creation patterns in professional service firms: Cases of law firms in People's Republic of China

After the transition from service economy to knowledge economy started, scholars pay more attention to professional service firms(PSFs) which are knowledge intensive, low capital intensive and organized by professors. Some researchers focus on the important change of value creation patterns in the “Big Four” from 1999 to 2001, But these researches can't explain how the knowledge is created differently. Based on four cases of law firms in People's Republic of China, this paper tries to classify the variety of value creation patterns in PSFs.