Mission Accomplished? Balancing Market Growth and Moral Legitimation in the Fair Trade Moral Market

How can market growth be legitimized in moral markets when such growth challenges the market’s founding mission? We shed new light on this question in a study of how Fairtrade International (FTI), the ‘market mediator’ regulating the fair trade moral market, gradually adapted the certification standards articulated at founding to facilitate market participation by multinational corporations (MNCs). Despite critiques by pioneer organizations after each growth-oriented mission change, we find that FTI managed to retain the support of these organizations and thereby sustain market-level moral legitimation. We theorize three types of ‘mission work’ through which moral market mediators can balance market growth and moral legitimation. First, mission editing trims and flexes the market’s moral mission to be more compatible with market growth. Second, mission moralizing articulates diverse moral claims to legitimize mission editing and frame market growth as necessary for mission accomplishment. Third, mission stabilizing enables to reach a temporary truce with pioneer organizations by emphasizing mission continuity and building a feeling of common fate. By illuminating mission work as a moral legitimation capability deployed by moral market mediators, our findings contribute to the literatures on moral markets, moral legitimation, and mission work.