Selling Issues with Solutions: Igniting Social Intrapreneurship in for‐Profit Organizations

Abstract

AbstractWe offer an explanation of the issue selling process when issues deviate from the dominant logic of organizations. Our main objective is to articulate the multiple ways in which socially oriented innovations can be legitimated in for‐profit organizations through the work of bottom‐up change agents, also known as social intrapreneurs. To unpack this multiplicity, we draw on both institutional theory and the framing perspective in social movements. Specifically, we propose how sellers may advance social issues with solutions by drawing on the logic composite of both organizations and selling targets. By providing an account of the social issue selling process in for‐profit organizations, we consider how the nature of an issue shapes selling efforts when it diverges from the dominant logic, and we shed light on how the content choices of sellers relate to the meaning systems of organizations and targets.