"I Think You Should Explore the Kinky Market": How Entrepreneurs Develop Value Propositions as Emergent Objects of Activity Networks

Successful value propositions can be productively analyzed as emergent cocreated objects: co-created at the intersection of multiple activities with varying interests and cycles, and thus incrementally revised to address cross-activity tensions. These objects are also represented across multiple genres; entrepreneurs must keep these different representations coherent during the co-creation process. Drawing on a nine-month qualitative study of 50 firms enrolled in entrepreneurship training, I illustrate this process of co-creating value propositions and keeping them coherent. The author concludes by suggesting necessary theoretical extensions to improve how we study emergent cocreated objects.