Learning,signaling, and convincing: The role of experimentation in the business modeling process

This study examines experimentation in the business modeling process, unpacking three different roles of experimentation: learning, signaling, and convincing. Learning is an inherent role of experimentation, as managers typically experiment to engage with the environment and to obtain knowledge. This study uncovers another set of roles, which have a symbolic nature. These roles show that experimentation is not just a learning process, but also a strategic legitimation process, aimed at enacting the environment. Experimentation serves the purpose of signaling to potential customers and other stakeholders, and of convincing them to embrace the business model. Furthermore, this study shows that experimentation takes two forms—purposeful interactions and experimental projects—and that these forms can support the different roles of experimentation.     

Un estudio de modelos femeninos en una muestra de adolescentes chilenas

Resumen

El objetivo de la presente investigación fue estudiar qué mujeres iberoamericanas tenían un valor de modelo y cuáles eran sus características, en una muestra de U6 adolescentes mujeres del Area Metropolitana de Santiago de Chile, estratificada en tres niveles socioeconómicos.

El análisis estadístico de los resultados indicó un bajo nivel de información en los tres estratos socioeconómicos, tanto en relación a las mujeres que han aportado en el devenir histórico, como en relación a las mujeres contemporáneas. Se observaron diferencias significativas de información entre los tres niveles socioeconómicos, siendo mayor el nivel de desinformación de las adolescentes del nivel socioeconómico bajo.

El rango de mujeres mencionadas como significativas, tanto históricas como contemporáneas, reflejó poca variedad en los modelos. La mayor parte de las mujeres históricas mencionadas son chilenas, encontrándose una muy pequeña proporción de mujeres del resto de Iberoamérica.     

Where the Grass Grows Again: Knowledge Exchange in the Sustainable Agriculture Movement1

Abstract Many analysts of sustainable agriculture have given considerable attention to issues of knowledge production, but in general they have not engaged social movement theory. This neglect is addressed by examining the emergence of intensive rotational grazing as a local expression of the sustainable agriculture movement. Conceptual frameworks drawn from recent contributions to social movement theory are used to describe the cognitive praxis of graziers along technological, cosmological, and organizational dimensions. Contrary to current interpretations, which emphasize the idiosyncratic character of local knowledge in agriculture, this analysis shows that through horizontal forms of organizing and information exchange, graziers overcome the limits of their personal experience and usefully share local knowledge in networks that they have forged expressly for that purpose.