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Developing Issue-Selling Effectiveness over Time: Issue Selling as Resourcing

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  • Jennifer A. Howard-Grenville

    (Management Department, Lunquist College of Business, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon 97403)

Abstract

This paper considers how issue sellers advance new issues within an organization over time, and how they gain competence at doing so. Using ethnographic, archival, and interview data spanning a six-year period, it describes the moves made by members of a high-tech manufacturer to introduce environmental considerations into the design of new manufacturing processes. A significant shift occurred in the pattern of moves used over time, and explanations for the shift are found in two accompanying dynamics: The gradual accumulation of assets by the group advancing the issues and their adjustment of moves used based on earlier experiences. The findings are used to develop a model of issue selling as resourcing ; that is, a practical accomplishment through which issue sellers’ moves enact key schemas held by issue recipients, triggering their attention and action on the issue. Issue selling as resourcing builds on recent work on resources and organizational boundaries to address how organizational contexts shape opportunities for and barriers to issue selling, and to identify how issue sellers learn to operate effectively within them.

Suggested Citation

  • Jennifer A. Howard-Grenville, 2007. "Developing Issue-Selling Effectiveness over Time: Issue Selling as Resourcing," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 18(4), pages 560-577, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:ororsc:v:18:y:2007:i:4:p:560-577
    DOI: 10.1287/orsc.1070.0266
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    3. Elisa Alt & Justin B. Craig, 2016. "Selling Issues with Solutions: Igniting Social Intrapreneurship in for-Profit Organizations," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(5), pages 794-820, July.
    4. Hervé Laroche & Véronique Steyer & Christelle Théron, 2019. "How Could You be so Gullible? Scams and Over-Trust in Organizations," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 160(3), pages 641-656, December.
    5. Gorgijevski, Alexander & Holmström Lind, Christine & Lagerström, Katarina, 2019. "Does proactivity matter? the importance of initiative selling tactics for headquarters acceptance of subsidiary initiatives," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 25(4).
    6. Tamim Elbasha & Alex Wright, 2017. "Reconciling structure and agency in strategy -as-practice research: Towards a strong- structuration theory approach," Post-Print hal-01557268, HAL.
    7. Ferreira, Luciana C. de Mesquita, 2011. "Attention process: A multilevel perspective," Insper Working Papers wpe_261, Insper Working Paper, Insper Instituto de Ensino e Pesquisa.
    8. Michal Carrington & Detlev Zwick & Benjamin Neville, 2019. "Activism and Abdication on the Inside: The Effect of Everyday Practice on Corporate Responsibility," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 160(4), pages 973-999, December.
    9. Kathryn L. Heinze & Klaus Weber, 2016. "Toward Organizational Pluralism: Institutional Intrapreneurship in Integrative Medicine," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 27(1), pages 157-172, February.
    10. Sascha Kraus & Matthias Breier & Paul Jones & Mathew Hughes, 2019. "Individual entrepreneurial orientation and intrapreneurship in the public sector," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 15(4), pages 1247-1268, December.
    11. Conroy, Kieran M. & Collings, David G., 2016. "The legitimacy of subsidiary issue selling: Balancing positive & negative attention from corporate headquarters," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 51(4), pages 612-627.
    12. Elbasha, Tamim & Avetisyan, Emma, 2018. "A framework to study strategizing activities at the field level: The example of CSR rating agencies," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 38-46.
    13. Holtbrügge, Dirk & Dögl, Corinna, 2012. "How international is corporate environmental responsibility? A literature review," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 18(2), pages 180-195.
    14. Linus Dahlander & Siobhan O'Mahony & David M. Gann, 2016. "One foot in, one foot out: how does individuals' external search breadth affect innovation outcomes?," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(2), pages 280-302, February.
    15. van den Oever, Koen, 2017. "Uncharted waters : A behavioral approach to when, why and which organizational changes are adopted," Other publications TiSEM 0136c8c2-ecdd-4f82-8ca7-d, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.

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