Changing Tune: Exploring Processes and Tensions in the Transition from Movement to Business

Abstract

The evolution of movement-based communities is drawing increasing attention among both scholars and practitioners. In their pursuit of scale and profits, movements tend to face the dual goals of drawing mainstream participation while preserving authenticity. Prior research tends to focus on uncoordinated initiatives led by multiple actors engaged with market logics, thus providing a gamut of offerings where different members of the community partake. Those movements that instead attempt to channel their entire communities into single business initiatives face the challenge to accommodate the different – sometimes conflicting – needs of their members. Yet, these challenges remain theoretically and empirically underexplored. Hence, we investigate the process by which community-based movements turn into single businesses by developing a qualitative, longitudinal (2014 – 2021) analysis of Rockin’1000 – also known as “The Biggest Rock Band in the World” – which originated as a movement of rock enthusiasts, and later morphed into a fully-fledged enterprise. By deploying a new perspective at the intersection of research on movements and value propositions, we conceptualize a generalizable, four-phase process. We show that each milestone throughout the transition becomes source of specific tensions, which alter movements’ equilibrium, and triggers a process of members shakeout, which may result in the decline of the initiative if not adequately addressed.