Concerned market innovations acknowledge that businesses can no longer be driven by profitability alone and have to integrate non-economic values and collective concerns. Studying the evolution of such an innovation – a mobile phone recovery and recycling scheme – we find that social concerns enter the market and are integrated into its functioning through representational, exchange and normative practices. The integration of social concerns in the market results in the transformation of these practices so that they better fit the marketplace but lose their original form. Consequently, the representational, exchange and normative practices remain confined to society rather than being permanently integrated into and having a profound impact on the marketplace. Underlying this never-ending cycle is the perpetuation of conventional wisdom whereby the market has to be interested but separate from society, while society has to be concerned. Only when these opposing dynamics are overcome will policymarkers be able to foster a cultural change and hope to transform existing markets into more sustainable forms.