This empirical analysis investigates the impact of consultant competency and project manager (PM) competency on business performance. Two hundred and twenty four chief executive officers and executive members at small and medium sized firms in the manufacturing sector were surveyed, yielding several outcomes. First, consultant competency positively affects consulting performance. Second, consultant competency positively affects business performance. Third, PM competency does not have a significant influence on consulting performance. Fourth, PM competency does not have a significant impact on business performance. Fifth, consulting performance does not have a significant effect on business performance. Finally, regarding the mediation effect of consulting performance on the influence of consultant competency and PM competency on business performance, consulting performance had no significant impact. Thus, expertise and insight are crucial for a consulting business to enable the growth of professional consultants. Furthermore, this study is expected to enhance the consulting performance of small and medium sized manufacturing firms by providing useful data to consultants and project managers when carrying out consulting projects.

1. Introduction
2. Theoretical Background
    2.1 Consultant Competency
    2.2 PM Competency
    2.3 Consulting Performance
    2.4 Business Performance
3. Materials and Methods
    3.1 Research Model and Hypothesis Setting
    3.2 Operational Definition of the MeasurementTool and Variables
4. Empirical Analysis
    4.1 Data Collection and Method of Analysis
    4.2 Sample Characteristics
    4.3 Validity and Reliability
    4.4 Results of Hypotheses Testing
5. Conclusions and Implications

• Rok Lee(School of Aerospace and Software Engineering, Gyeongsang National University) | 이록 (경상국립대학교 공과대학 항공우주및소프트웨어공학부) Corresponding author