Market Mediators and the Trade-offs of Legitimacy-Seeking Behaviors in a Nascent Category

Brandon H. Lee (), Shon R. Hiatt () and Michael Lounsbury ()
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Brandon H. Lee: Melbourne Business School, University of Melbourne, Carlton, Victoria 3053, Australia
Shon R. Hiatt: University of Southern California, Marshall School of Business, Los Angeles, California 90089
Michael Lounsbury: University of Alberta School of Business and National Institute for Nanotechnology, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2E7, Canada

Organization Science, 2017, vol. 28, issue 3, 447-470

Abstract: Although existing research has demonstrated the importance of attaining legitimacy for new market categories, few scholars have considered the trade-offs associated with such actions. Using the U.S. organic food product category as a context, we explore how one standards-based certification organization—the California Certified Organic Farmers (CCOF)—sought to balance efforts to legitimate a nascent market category with retaining a shared, distinctive identity among its members. Our findings suggest that legitimacy-seeking behaviors undertaken by the standards organization diluted the initial collective identity and founding ethos of its membership. However, by shifting the meaning of “organic” from the producer to the product, CCOF was able to strengthen the categorical boundary, thereby enhancing its legitimacy. By showing how the organization managed the associated trade-offs, this study highlights the double-edged nature of legitimacy and offers important implications for the literatures on legitimacy and new market category formation.

Keywords: category emergence; legitimacy; market intermediary; collective identity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (29)

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