When value-based selling stalls: an institutional analysis of its adoption in knowledge-intensive business services

This study examines how institutional conditions at the individual, organisational, and field levels hinder the adoption of value-based selling (VBS) in a multinational firm operating in the field of knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS). Through a qualitative case study, we analyse adoption episodes and identify five institutional configurations – sales – consultancy resistance, unit-centred goals, mistrust of sales roles, possessiveness over work and clients, and procurement regulations – that stall progress. These configurations operate through regulative, normative, and cultural – cognitive elements and disrupt six observable adoption markers: early delivery involvement, cross-unit coordination, explicit value hypotheses, outcome-linked terms or evidence obligations, named outcome ownership, and validation gates. This study integrates institutional theory with VBS research by reframing adoption as compliance with rules, obligations, and taken-for-granted views rather than a technique choice.