The interactional business of doing business: Managing legitimacy and co‐constructing entrepreneurial identities in e‐commerce multilevel marketing discourse

Discourse analysis was performed on how legitimacy was managed in e‐commerce multilevel marketing (MLM) business presentations. Through analysis of extracts from three presentations, the author finds support for two broad claims. First, an entrepreneurial strategy is used to manage the legitimacy of a MLM organization, consistent with existing research, and this is also juxtaposed with a strategy of promoting other identities, most notably the identities of being a marketer and a consumer. Second, this strategy is accomplished sequentially and collaboratively in talk at consequential moments in the interaction, often by presenters constraining the contributions of audience members.