ABSTRACT
This chapter draws on a combination of theoretical literature, qualitative interviews with organizational actors internal to the fair trade movement and an examination of public discourses generated by fair trade organizations. Fair trade has focused on building associational legitimacy via a range of celebrity endorsements, as well as addressing pragmatic legitimacy via improved quality control and premium price marketing, it is differentiated by its normative and cognitive legitimacies. The chapter uses a neo-institutional framework within organizational theory to analyse the legitimacy of fair trade and to explore the assumptions underpinning its right to operate as a social enterprise. It falls into three parts. First, it develops an analytic model of the organizational legitimacy process in fair trade. Second, the model is used to reflect upon actual managerial action within fair trade organizations based on analysis of a sample of qualitative interviews. Finally, conclusions and recommendations are drawn from the analysis.
