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The final, published version of this article can be found at: https://doi.org/10.1177/23294884221147020, ORCID information: Germán Varas: 0000-0001-5426-9839; Omar Sabaj: 0000-0002-7075-9384; Clay Spinuzzi: 0000-0002-9629-6189; Miguel Fuentes: 0000-0003-0063-7688; Valentine Gerard: 0000-0002-1378-8947; Paula Cabezas: 0000-0003-2257-1907, How do start-ups create value through the language of their business pitches? In this article, we investigate that question by identifying the logics of justification they use, traditionally conceptualised as orders of worth. In this study of short written pitches in a six-month Chilean accelerator program, we describe how we detected logics of justification through pitch language, and we identify (a) co-occurrence patterns among logics of justification, (b) associations between logics of justification and industry sectors, and (c) associations between logics and a firm's customer segment (B2B, B2C). This study provides unique insights into how start-ups sometimes justify innovations by using specific patterns of language depending on a venture's features.

This paper illuminates the role of activity theory in addressing theoretical and practical challenges raised by the growing role of digital technology in human activity. We explore and review the r...

In “From Mediated Actions To Heterogenous Coalitions: Four Generations of Activity-Theoretical Studies of Work and Learning,” Engestrom and Sannino discuss the fourth generation of activity theory ...

The final published version of this article is available at https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/10506519221121813, Accelerators support fledgling ventures with a set curriculum, moving them through a cycle of venture development, culminating in a Demo Day pitch in which the ventures argue for their viability. Yet firms are often involved in multiple programs with conflicting objectives and cycles. No research has addressed such conflicts. In this article, we examine an accelerator program partially linked to others to share resources. Drawing on the OODA framework, we identify disjunctures among cycles, anchoring this analysis at the final pitch. Working back from this Decide point, we examine interference among the associated programs.

This study examined how three successful entrepreneurs/investors assessed the visual rhetoric of actual pitch decks from novice entrepreneurs. We compare their evaluations to the result of a heuristic for assessing visual rhetoric, Color CRAYONTIP. While the pitch deck is recognized as a key artifact in entrepreneurship, no studies have specifically addressed the visual design of the deck nor the key design skills novice entrepreneurs should implement to effectively persuade potential investors of the idea's promise. This preliminary and exploratory case study begins a dialogue on this topic by performing a visual analysis of seven novice decks which were deemed successful by experienced angel investors. The analysis revealed five key skills that appear to account for the success of these decks with the reviewers: rhetorical awareness, typography, color, photography, and contrast.

In this pilot study, we investigate how community leaders in a rural Texas small town argue about economic development. To study this, we examine 33 semistructured interviews collected by undergraduate interns and analyze this data using Luc Boltanski and Laurent Thevenot's Orders of Worth framework. Using this approach, we find that morals exacerbate a local housing crisis. This study extends Saul Carliner's work by showing an alternative way to name the competing value systems that trouble the assessment of technical documentation. However, this pilot study is also important to the field of communication design insofar as it models the use of a new theoretical framework to study the articulation of different value systems at work in practices of community advocacy.