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 conceptualized as orders of worth. In this study of short written pitches in a 6-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.

Early-stage entrepreneurs iteratively revise problem statements (PS) in their pitch decks to persuade audiences of the value of their solution. This study examines how startups seeking funding within an accelerator program revise their PS during training. We analyzed initial and final versions of 66 pitch decks startups produced in Startup Chile in 2017-2018. A quantitative analysis showed that versions changed in their components and media choices, including increased references to existing solutions as well as more statistical evidence. A qualitative content analysis of three specific deck pairs showed that relationships across these edits sometimes impaired the argument coherence of the pitch, specifically the proposed problem-solution fit. We conclude with implications for entrepreneurship education programs.

Although value proposition (VP) plays an essential role in companies, there are few studies that address its communication in terms of professional discourse, and the way members of the same company perceive it has not been explored. This study aims to identify the convergent and divergent perspectives that actors in a digital microfirm have regarding their VP, and to determine where these divergences emerge within the microfirm’s activity system. A simple case study was conducted to describe how multiple perspectives on VP are discursively expressed and its disruptions in the activity system. First, results were grouped into 11 categories, which then resulted in 3 macro-categories focusing on different aspects of VP: Quality Service, Holistic Marketing, and Challenges and Uncertainty. Using an activity system analysis, 4 distinct disruptions were identified, all concerning the Rules axis of the activity system. Unlike the traditional conception of the VP as a single definition of the essence of the company, it was found that the actors attribute different purposes to their organization.

Background and research problem: The way in which work is done in digital contexts deviates from classical corporate, hierarchical, departmental organizations. Since digital microfirms are becoming more common, understanding the way members organize their activities through communication in this specific type of enterprise represents an appealing field to develop. Literature review: We discuss how the framework of Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) allows us to analyze activity systems and trace disruptions in postbureaucratic digital work. We also review research using CHAT along with genre studies to understand, specifically, business communication and entrepreneurial rhetoric in a spaceless microfirm that provides digital services. Research questions: 1. In what activities does this microfirm engage? That is, what different objects and outcomes has it been developed to achieve? 2. How do the contradictions between these activities shape the microfirm’s organization and its orientation to clients? Methods: Guided by the components of activity systems, we coded interviews, questionnaires, instant messages, and databases. Discourse analysis allowed us to identify contradictions. Results: Both from the perspective of some team members and through artifact analysis, flexibility and closeness to the client are the firm’s value propositions. Consequently, they organize their daily activities around addressing the urgent, proximate needs of each client. Conclusion: Although the microfirm’s focus on flexibility and closeness sets it apart tactically from larger competitors, it also hinders strategic planning, requiring greater effort for group communication and decision-making. This insight helps us to understand why microfirms in general seem more tactically than strategically oriented.

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 fir entrepreneurship communication and Jr professional communication more generally.

El objetivo de esta investigación es identificar los recursos retóricos para expresar originalidad en Artículos de Investigación; y, luego, comparar esos recursos, considerando las variables disciplina y grado de experticia de los autores. En el marco de una investigación mixta, analizamos un corpus de 182 Artículos de Investigación de distintas áreas y publicados por autores con diferentes grados de experticia. Como resultado obtuvimos la identificación y definición de 11 recursos retóricos para expresar originalidad, que fueron agrupados en directos e indirectos. Los mecanismos indirectos son mucho más frecuentes que los directos, que tienen una aparición bajísima. Los investigadores en formación utilizan más recursos de expresión de originalidad, pero solo los consolidados hacen uso de los directos. La expresión de originalidad indirecta es un recurso frecuente en Ciencias Sociales y también, aunque en menor medida, en Humanidades. En todas las otras áreas, los recursos indirectos aparecen en menor grado y con frecuencias similares

Background: Following previous professional communication research into entrepreneurship, we examine key genres of a specific business accelerator, Start-Up Chile (SUP). Through a triangulated study of interviews, texts, and videos, we examine how the Playbook serves as a regulatory metagenre that represents the SUP experience to the participating firms. We find that aspects of the Playbook's representation are at odds with the other data, divergences that we argue emerge from a broader tension among SUP's stakeholders and goals. Literature review: We review the professional communication literature on entrepreneurship, literature on startups and accelerators, and on writing, activity, and genre research (WAGR). Specifically, we examine WAGR research on metagenres and professional identity formation. Research question: How does this successful international accelerator regularize the learning experience of its exceedingly diverse startups? Specifically, how does SUP regulate the startups' different experiences, reframing the experience of entrepreneurship and teaching these startups to form their professional identity as entrepreneurs? Research methodology: We structured this research as a qualitative case study of SUP. Data included documents, videos, interviews, and social media. We triangulated these data sources to identify points of convergence (in which different data sources supported the same assertions) and divergence (in which data sources contradicted each other). Results: SUP provides the Playbook and Newsletter as metagenres that regulate complex interactions among other genres and events, guiding firms into having roughly equivalent experiences as well as maintaining relationships among volunteers such as mentors. But the Playbook also reframes the experience of entrepreneurship so that it can fit into SUP's program: it reframes the cyclical entrepreneurship process as linear, and it reframes promises of future action as tracking of past actions. In undergoing these experiences, the startups form their professional identity as entrepreneurs. Conclusion: We conclude by discussing implications for accelerators as well as for how professional communication genres and metagenres regulate neophytes' experiences in training programs more broadly.

The relation between the linguistic features of value and start-up attributes has often been neglected. We examined how entrepreneurs create value through the business pitch by drawing on the identification of 'logics of justification', traditionally conceptualized as 'orders of worth'. We describe the language of logics of justification and identify co-occurrence patterns among logics of justification, associations between logics of justification and industry sectors, and associations between logics and firm's customer segment (b2b, b2c). This study provides unique insights about how the justification of innovations may draw on specific patterns of language depending on a venture's features.

Quantification is a grammatical and discursive resource especially important in the public account genre. In this type of texts, quantification is used to valorize the achievements of an institution. In the public account of a Technology Transfer Office, these achievements may refer to contracts, patents, awarded projects or funds, among other measurable indicators of productivity. Quantification in public accounts can be potentially expressed in a fuzzy way, for example, “our office reviewed more than 200 ventures”. Using mixed methods (a case study with quantitative phases), we describe how fuzzy quantities operate in the public account rendered by a Chilean Technology Transfer Office. Our analysis showed that fuzzy quantifications correspond to almost 50% of the total quantifications. Three semantic types of fuzzy quantifiers were found: those approaching a vector (approximants), those exceeding a vector (‘overreachers’) and those blurring a number (diffusers). The latter was the most frequent resource for fuzzy quantifications. Furthermore, we provide evidence that would favor a stylistic explanation over a rhetorical one regarding the fuzzy quantification in the discourse of the analyzed public account.

The growing importance of entrepreneurship and innovation for economic growth has propitiated a discursive genre that nowadays is almost omnipresent, i.e., the pitch. As with other emerging genres used in professional settings (e.g., selling presentations, business plans, etc.), several instructional discourses regarding the pitch have come out in the form of manuals and courses offering training on “how to make a pitch more powerful”. Empirical research, however, is less common. The aim of this paper is to qualitatively review and sort out the existing empirical research on the pitch. For this, three classifying categories are proposed according to its reception (mainly by investors), the focus on discursive features, and its evolution. Finally, some critiques to the empirical research on the pitch and a description of some future trends on the field are provided. This work may be useful for professionals interested in innovation and entrepreneurship, areas in which this emerging discourse broadly circulates.

Background: After a six-month training program in the Chilean public accelerator Start-Up Chile, entrepreneurs are asked to update a short pitch they wrote in the submission stage to appear in the program's online portfolio. Literature review: We reviewed relevant literature related to the pitch as well as research aiming to track changes within pitches. Research questions: 1. Which are the editing strategies used to change their pitch? 2. Do these strategies conform to specific discursive patterns? Research methodology: To answer the research questions, we designed an exploratory qualitative study to describe in depth the editing strategies used by two generations of startups, corresponding to 148 pairs of written pitches. In order to contextualize the results, we conducted two interviews with the program managers and analyzed the accelerator's official Playbook and Technical and Administrative Requirements. Results: We identified 10 editing strategies. Of those editing strategies, "Deleting technical descriptions" is by far the most common procedure. The identified patterns can be classified into two groups, those simplifying, hedging, and focusing on certain elements of the first pitch, and those adding and specifying information of the first version. Conclusions: We conclude by discussing the strengths of this methodological approach for understanding such edits and for supporting successful edits in accelerator programs, as well as the potential for better understanding entrepreneur coachability.

El uso de la cuantificación es un recurso gramatical y discursivo especialmente importante en el género de las cuentas públicas. En ellas, la cuantificación se utiliza para poner en valor los logros obtenidos por una institución. En el caso de una cuenta pública de una Oficina de Transferencia Tecnológica, estos logros corresponden a firmas de contratos, patentes, proyectos adjudicados o fondos de financiamiento, entre otros indicadores conmensurables de productividad. La cuantificación en estos textos puede presentarse de manera difuminada o desdibujada, por ejemplo, nuestra oficina revisó más de 200 emprendimientos. En el siguiente estudio, describimos, usando métodos mixtos (estudio de casos con fases cuantitativas), el funcionamiento de la cuantificación difuminada en el discurso de una cuenta pública llevada a cabo por una Oficina de Transferencia y Licenciamiento. Los resultados muestran que el uso de la cuantificación difuminada representa casi la mitad de las veces que se cuantifica. Existen tres tipos semánticos de cuantificadores difusos, aquellos que se aproximan a un vector (aproximantes), aquellos que pasan un vector (traspasantes) y aquellos que difuminan un número (difuminantes). Estos últimos recursos son los más típicos para cuantificar de manera difusa. Asimismo, presentamos evidencia que favorece una explicación estilística, por sobre una retórica, del uso de la cuantificación difuminada en el discurso de la cuenta pública analizada.

‘Innovation’ is an omnipresent term which is transversal to many fields. In this article we briefly describe a research program to explore the ‘Discourse of Innovation’. We first define innovation as social practice and critically revise the notion of discourse. Then, we outline the ‘Discourse of Innovation’ as an object of study, making explicit the epistemological tenets of our approach. We finally propose a tentative research matrix, and the originality claims of this program. The ideas contained in this article can be useful for those interested in analyzing the discourse and the practice of innovation from a multiperspective point of view.

Analizamos Informes de Arbitraje en los que se recomendaba rechazar la publicación de los manuscritos enviados a una revista chilena de humanidades. Buscamos establecer si estos informes variaban según dos atributos de los evaluadores: el número de publicaciones y el tipo de participación en la revista. Los resultados muestran que, independientemente de su estatus, al rechazar un artí­culo de investigación cientí­fica los árbitros realizan evaluaciones centradas en todo el artí­culo y que los propósitos comunicativos caracterí­sticos son describir, describir error y describir lo que falta.

Our research aims to identify the functional-appraisal patterns within a corpus of referee reports, a key genre in the production of scientific knowledge. For this, we first identified the most frequent functional elements or communicative purposes (Sabaj, Toro & Fuentes, 2011; Fuentes, 2018) and then described them according to some categories of the Appraisal model (Martin & White, 2005). Our intended sample was composed of 42 referee reports from Onomcizein, the journal of linguistics and translation of Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile. Some of the results show that the most frequent communicative purposes are "Describe a problem", "Highlight a positive aspect", "Request an action" and "Suggest an action". The high frequency of "Describe a problem" and "Highlight a positive aspect" were expected in this type of evaluative genre. Both purposes tend to focus on content issues and present a strong monoglossic stance which is intensified with Graduation meanings. The monoglossic pattern may be due to the position of power in which the referee is when evaluating an artide. The high frequency of the communicative purposes "Request action" and "Suggest action" accounts for the negotiating function of this genre. Finally, when requesting and suggesting an action, attitude meanings refer to elements of form instead of content.

El objetivo central de este trabajo fue identificar los patrones funcionales-valorativos presentes en un corpus de informes de arbitraje, género clave en la producción de conocimiento científico. Para el análisis, se utilizó un procedimiento que implicó, primero, la identificación de los elementos funcionales o propósitos comunicativos más frecuentes (Sabaj, Toro & Fuentes, 2011; Fuentes, 2018) y, luego, su descripción con algunas categorías del modelo de la valoración (Martin & White, 2005). El corpus, de carácter intencionado, estuvo compuesto por 42 informes de arbitraje de la revista de lingüística y traducción de la Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Onomázein . Algunos de los resultados muestran que los propósitos comunicativos más frecuentes son “Describir un problema”, “Destacar un aspecto positivo”, “Solicitar una acción” y “Sugerir una acción”. La alta frecuencia de los propósitos “Describir un problema” y “Destacar un aspecto positivo” eran esperables en un género evaluativo. Ambos propósitos se focalizan más en elementos de contenido y presentan un fuerte posicionamiento monoglósico intensificado con significados de Gradación. El patrón monoglósico puede explicarse por la situación de poder en que se encuentra el árbitro al ser el evaluador del artículo. La alta frecuencia de los propósitos comunicativos “Solicitar acción” y “Sugerir acción” da cuenta de la función negociadora del género. Por último, tanto en la solicitud como en la sugerencia de acciones, los significados de actitud tienen como foco los elementos de forma y no de contenido.

The value of scientific knowledge is highly dependent on the quality of the process used to produce it, namely, the quality of the peer-review process. This process is a pivotal part of science as it works both to legitimize and improve the work of the scientific community. In this context, the present study investigated the relationship between review time, length, and feedback quality of review reports in the peer-review process of research articles. For this purpose, the review time of 313 referee reports from three Chilean international journals were recorded. Feedback quality was determined estimating the rate of direct requests by the total number of comments in each report. Number of words was used to describe the average length in the sample. Results showed that average time and length have little variation across review reports, irrespective of their quality. Low quality reports tended to take longer to reach the editor, so neither time nor length were related to feedback quality. This suggests that referees mostly describe, criticize, or praise the content of the article instead of making useful and direct comments to help authors improve their manuscripts.

The referee report of research articles is a discursive genre in which a part of the collective process of building knowledge is crystalized. Given its confidentiality, there is little empirical work on this genre. Among these few contributions, a series of limitations can be identified, such as the lack of definition of the unit of analysis or the lack of integration between discursive and sociometric data. In this article, we present a model that contributes to overcoming these limitations. The model was applied with the purpose of analyzing the variation of referee reports according to two extralinguistic variables, i.e., publication recommendation (accepted, conditioned, rejected) and referee’s number of published articles. The results showed that both extralinguistic attributes were associated with specific discourse variations, of which publication recommendation was more decisive than referee’s academic productivity.

Dada la importancia del análisis de la cooperación, el estudio de la productividad científica se ha focalizado en las autorías múltiples y no ha abordado la autoría única. El propósito de este artículo es analizar las autorías únicas de la base SciELO Chile, entre los años 2010 y 2014. Los datos corresponden a 9.541 registros, con los cuales se estimó la proporción de la autoría única versus la multi-autoría, y el número de contribuciones por autor único en cada área de la ciencia. La autoría única representa el 29% del total publicado, y es una práctica frecuente en Humanidades y Ciencias Sociales. Por otra parte, los autores únicos, además, tienden a ser ocasionales, es decir, escriben solos y solo una vez. El estudio de la autoría única es fundamental para comprender las dinámicas particulares de la construcción de conocimiento científico y para generar e implementar políticas de investigación.