Legitimacy Strategies for Animal Welfare in Dyadic Supply Chains: An Evidence‐Based Business Strategy Typology

Firms at food supply chains have increasingly been concerned with their environmental and social business strategies, such as animal welfare adoption. However, we know little about how to set boundaries to manage these strategies. This article thus explores how buyer–supplier relationships build market legitimacy in the cage‐free table egg supply chain. Grounded on legitimacy theory, a case study was conducted through six buyer–supplier relationships. Data were collected from a table egg supplier, retailers, hybrid wholesale‐retailers, a certifier, and a nongovernmental organization over a 1‐year timespan and then codified using an inductive content analysis. Our results reveal three objects formed from supplier's and buyers' legitimacy strategies (animal welfare scheme, certification, and product mix), with only the first one being successfully adopted across all dyadic relationships analyzed. Our analysis led to an evidence‐based business strategy typology for legitimacy organized into four quadrants (i.e., sleeper, explorer, passenger, and driver). This study builds theory on how dyadic supply chains legitimize animal welfare practice and offers the concept of object legitimation . By doing so, we explain why and how the legitimacy‐as‐process leads to shift from actions (legitimacy strategies) to outcomes (types of legitimacy) in the cage‐free table egg supply chain.