Institutional dynamics of purchasing and supply management development: A process study of stakeholder influence

Functional development in purchasing and supply management (PSM) has proven challenging for many organisations despite the strategic advantages it can provide. In this paper, we study how organisational stakeholders both enable and constrain the development of the PSM function through evolving patterns of institutional work. We integrate institutional theory with a processual perspective to examine how stakeholders navigate competing institutional logics and shape PSM's legitimacy over time through an in-depth longitudinal case study in the pharmaceutical industry. Our analysis reveals three distinct developmental phases, each characterised by different configurations of institutional logics, forms of institutional work (defensive and enabling), and legitimacy dynamics. This study contributes to the literature exploring functional development within PSM in two important ways. First, we demonstrate that successful PSM development requires not the replacement of existing institutional logics but their hybridisation, achieved through institutional work that evolves from coercive to collaborative approaches over time. Second, we show how selective institutionalisation—achieving embedded influence in specific domains whilst accepting exclusion from others—may represent optimal accommodation in pluralistic organisational contexts. Our processual analysis reveals PSM development as an ongoing institutional accomplishment requiring continuous negotiation rather than linear progression toward a predetermined end state.