Introduction to Special Issue on the Rhetoric of Entrepreneurship

Introduction to a special issue of the Journal of Business and Technical Communication on the rhetoric of entrepreneurship. The author introduces basic definitions and concepts from the field of entrepreneurship, then identifies three issues linking rhetoric to entrepreneurship: rhetoric and identity; rhetoric, culture, and community; and rhetoric and persuasion.IC2 Institut

Losing by Expanding: Corralling the Runaway Object

At the time of publication C. Spinuzzi was at the University of Texas at Austin.Third-generation activity theory (3GAT) has become a popular theoretical and methodological framework for writing studies, particularly in technical communication. 3GAT involves identifying an object, a material or problem that is cyclically transformed by collective activity. The object is the linchpin of analysis in the empirical case. Yet the notion of object has expanded methodologically and theoretically over time, making it difficult to reliably bound an empirical case. In response, this article outlines the expansion of the object, diagnoses this expansion, and proposes an alternate approach that constrains the object for case-study research in writing studies.Writin

Starter Ecologies Introduction to the Special Issue on Social Software

At the time of publication C. Spinuzzi was at The University of Texas at Austin.Writin

The Methodology of Participatory Design

At the time of publication C. Spinuzzi was at the University of Texas at Austin.Provides the historical and methodological grounding for understanding participatory design as a methodology. Describes its research designs, methods, criteria, and limitations. Provides guidance for applying it to technical communication research.Writin

A Good Idea is Not Enough: Understanding the Challenges of Entrepreneurship Communication

This paper addresses a less-investigated issue of innovations: entrepreneurship communication. Business and marketing studies demonstrate that new product development processes do not succeed on good technical invention alone. To succeed, the invention must be appropriately communicated to a market and iterated through dialogue with potential stakeholders. We explore this issue by examining communication-related challenges, abilities and barriers from the perspectives of innovators trying to enter an unfamiliar, foreign market. Specifically, we summarize results of a set of studies conducted in the Gyeonggi Innovation Program (GIP), an entrepreneurship program formed by a partnership between the University of Texas at Austin and Gyeonggi-Do Province in South Korea. Through the GIP, Korean entrepreneurs attempt to expand domestically successful product ideas to the American market. The study results demonstrate that these innovators must deal with a broad range of challenges, particularly (1) developing deeper understanding of market needs, values, and cultural expectations, and (2) producing pitches with the structure, claims and evidence, and engagement strategies expected by American stakeholders. These studies confirm that a deeper understanding of successful new product development (NPD) projects requires not only a culturally authentic NPD process model, but also communication-oriented research. The GIP approach offers insights into good programmatic concept and effective methods for training engineers to become entrepreneurs. Yet we also identify potential improvements for such programs. Finally, we draw implications for studying entrepreneurship communication.IC2 Institut

Value Propositions as Fractional Objects: Searching for Strands of Stabilization in a Startup’s Arguments

Early-stage technology startups must continuously learn: About potential markets and their problems, about the developing technology and its opportunities and limitations, about business models that could sustain an enterprise built around the technology. And they must continuously argue their value to a rotating set of stakeholders. To provide relative stability amidst constant changes to the argument, startups develop a multifaceted value proposition: a claim that can accommodate its diverse stakeholders’ values. In this preliminary study, we apply the Orders of Worth framework to archival data and interviews from a startup developing its offering from 2016-2023. We focus on its value proposition, “Save more than you spend,” examining how elaborations on this phrase to different stakeholders invoke different orders of worth, yielding what one founder characterizes as a “multifaceted value proposition.” We conclude with implications for understanding the value proposition as fractional: cohering just enough to provide a relatively stable project object for the startup.IC2 InstituteWritin

Visualizing the entrepreneur’s journey: Synchronic, iterative, and linear representations

In this paper, we draw from entrepreneurship literature to develop a typology of visual genres representing “journey”-related aspects of entrepreneurship. We identify and characterize iterative, linear, and synchronic representations of the entrepreneur’s journey, providing examples of each from the entrepreneurship literature, and we discuss how these visual genres collectively help neophyte entrepreneurs understand different aspects of their entrepreneurial journey. Finally, we draw implications for entrepreneurship communication and for professional communication more generally.Writin

Articulating Problems and Markets: A Translation Analysis of Entrepreneurs’ Emergent Value Propositions

In this qualitative study, the authors apply Callon’s sociology of translation to examine how new technology entrepreneurs enact material arguments that involve the first two moments of translation—problematization (defining a market problem) and interessement (defining a market and the firm’s relationship to it) - which in turn are represented in a claim, the value proposition. That emergent claim can then be represented and further changed during pitches. If accepted, it can then lead to the second two moments of translation: enrollment and mobilization. Drawing on written materials, observations, and interviews, we trace how these value propositions were iterated along three paths to better problematize and interesse, articulating a problem and market on which a business could plausibly be built. We conclude by discussing implications for understanding value propositions in entrepreneurship and, more broadly, using the sociology of translation to analyze emergent, material, consequential arguments. The study is based on data collected at the Austin Technology Incubator’s Student Entrepreneur Acceleration and Launch program (ATI SEAL) at The University of Texas at Austin.IC2 Institut

Go or No Go: Learning to Persuade in an Early-Stage Student Entrepreneurship Program

Abstract—Background: Early-stage accelerator programs teach new entrepreneurs how to identify and exploit venture opportunities. In doing so, they implicitly teach these new entrepreneurs how to develop and iterate claims. But since this function of teaching persuasion has been implicit and generally unsystematic, it is unclear how well it works. Literature review: We review related literature on the venture development process, value propositions, and logic orientation (Goods-Dominant vs. Service-Dominant Logic). Research questions: 1. Does an entrepreneurship training program implicitly teach new entrepreneurs to make and iterate persuasive claims? 2. How effectively does it do so, and how can it improve? Research methodology: We examine one such accelerator program via a qualitative case study. In this case study, we collected interviews, observations, and artifacts, then analyzed them with thematic coding. Results/discussion: All teams had received previous entrepreneurship training and mentoring. However, they differed in their problem and logic orientations as well as their stage in the venture development process. These differences related to the extent to which they iterated value propositions in the program. Conclusions: We conclude with recommendations for improving how accelerator programs can better train new entrepreneurs to communicate and persuade.IC2 Institut

Understanding the Value Proposition as a Co-Created Claim

In this paper, the authors examine five cases of technology commercialization in terms of how entrepreneurs advance a specific kind of claim: the value proposition. The value proposition can describe the characteristics of the innovation itself (Goods-Dominant Logic) or propose how the innovation will cocreate value with stakeholders (Service-Dominant Logic); in the examined cases, the value proposition transitions between these two "logics," addressing different needs in the ongoing argument. We conclude by discussing the needs that each "logic" serves and the implications for better understanding entrepreneurship communication.IC2 Institut