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The literature has often associated the process of appropriating a management tool with the question of its intra-organizational legitimacy. However, the underlying mechanisms of the link between appropriation and legitimacy of a tool remain to be explored. In addition, the procedural nature of the legitimacy of management tools has been widely theorized but rarely empirically demonstrated. To provide answers, we have carried out qualitative research by analyzing the trajectory of a trades observatory that has been operating for twenty-four years in a public research organization. The three identified sequences in the trajectory of this observatory show that the process of appropriating the tool by certain stakeholders modifies its functions in order to adapt it to institutional needs and build its legitimacy over time.