Research on how actors tackle complex social problems has burgeoned in business and society. However, the fragmented nature of this research hinders not only knowledge accumulation but also its relevance for practitioners. We address this challenge by drawing on the four core concepts most frequently employed to define these problems: tragedy of the commons, wicked problems, systems of problems, and grand challenges. We explore the ontology of these concepts and their genealogical connections to current research. We derive a multifarious framework that helps observe order in a domain that appears ridden with fragmentation. First, the framework identifies the three ontologies that ground most management research in this area: technical rationality, pragmatism, and systems theory. Second, it identifies four frames or sets of questions pursued by management scholars: relational, emergent, adaptive capacity, and curatorial. The framework supports the integration of knowledge without sacrificing the diversity of views offered in current research.