Too Legit to Quit: Developing Cognitive Legitimacy by Reconceptualizing Failed Product Pitches

Establishing legitimacy is a key goal for new ventures. Entrepreneurs can establish legitimacy for their new ventures by attracting financial backing from investors and using those funds to build value into ventures. The professional communication-focused behavior of delivering an entrepreneurial pitch to potential resource providers represents one of the most important behaviors entrepreneurs engage in while developing a sustainable venture. Effective professional communication skills are essential not only to the development of entrepreneurs but also to those management and finance students destined to enter professional environments requiring interaction with entrepreneurs and start-up ventures. We present an assignment introducing management students to the concept of entrepreneurial pitch as a tool necessary for identifying and implementing legitimacy, framing, and entrepreneurial motivations. The pitching-failed-product-ideas assignment allows students to begin building skills necessary to communicate legitimacy of an organization to an audience of stakeholders and utilize entrepreneurial motivations of enthusiasm, preparedness, and commitment.