Abstract
nteractions between the marketing function and other different functions (e.g. marketing and sales; marketing and operations, marketing and Research & Development...) have widely been discussed by the literature. Interfunctional collaboration is, furthermore,largely considered as impacting positively on business performance.Nevertheless, one of these interactions –the one between the purchasing function and the marketing function -has been investigated mostly on an inter-organizational basis (in the sense of how and why the marketing function of a selling firm must interact with the purchasing function of the buying one). The intra-organizational aspect of such an interaction –how in the same companycan the purchasing and the marketing functions interact?–has largely been neglected by the literature. This work in progress paperaddresses this specific aspect of the marketing / purchasing interaction. Itis based on a case study carried out in a chemical company. It describes how a marketing team emerged and developed within a corporate purchasing departmentto bring information about upstream markets to the business units. Drawing on the findings of this case study we discuss several aspects of the integration of marketing and purchasing within the same company, among them: 1/ The impact of a difference of organizational status between marketing and purchasing; 2/ The unusual role played by purchasing as a “cross-road” function; 3/ The importance of top management involvement in supporting interfunctional integration; 4/ The importance of a real strategic vision of what integration may bring to a company