Movements and Main Street: The Interplay Between Social Movement Framing and Small Businesses’ Responses

Drawing on framing theory, we theorize how social movements affect social movement–driven small businesses over a movement’s lifecycle. We propose three social movement–driven small business types—originals, casual converts, and zealot converts—and argue that social movements’ diagnostic, prognostic, and motivational frames will affect these businesses differently during different stages of the social movement’s life cycle. Specifically, we explore the degree to which they integrate the social movement’s values into their businesses during different movement stages, their financial outcomes, the extent to which they contribute to the social movement, and whether they maintain or abandon their value integration post-movement. Our theory highlights the ripple effects that social movements can have on firms that are not the movement’s direct targets and enhances our understanding of the relationship between social movements and small businesses in markets unrelated to the social movement.