Creating bold new products requires experimentation, and sometimes things go catastrophically wrong. When that happens, smart firms focus on the opportunity for organizational learning—a process known as sensemaking. A new paper examines a different aspect of catastrophic failure: sensegiving, or how a company frames the event for outside stakeholders, including investors and customers, and for the public at large.
catastrophic：灾难性的，毁灭性的
大胆的产品创新需要实验，有时会造成惨重失败。出现这种情况时，明智的企业会强调组织学习的机会，即“意义构建”。一项新研究分析了重大失败的另一面向：“意义赋予”，即公司如何向外部利益相关方（包括投资者、客户和一般公众）解释失败。
Researchers examined tweets, blog posts, and media statements from the private space companies SpaceX and Virgin Galactic after high-profile rocket crashes or explosions. Both firms ultimately came out with the same basic message: The failures were an inherent risk of their activities, and they presented opportunities to learn. But SpaceX had an easier time overcoming the “legitimacy jolt” of its failures than Virgin Galactic did, because of how the companies had previously characterized their endeavors.
high-profile：备受瞩目的，高调的
legitimacy：合法性，合理性
研究者分析了私人太空技术公司SpaceX和维珍银河（Virgin Galactic）在广受关注的火箭发射失败后发布的推特、博客文章和媒体通稿。两家公司传达的信息基本一致：业务本身包含失败风险，但失败也是学习的机会。不过，相比维珍银河，SpaceX更容易地克服了“合法性危机”。这是由两家公司此前对自身的描述方式决定的。
SpaceX had already incorporated the notion of failure into its narrative, routinely using phrases such as “if the mission succeeds.” But Virgin—which has for years sold seats on intended space flights to “future astronauts”—had downplayed the likelihood of failure, so it struggled more with how to frame its crash. The firms’ responses were also influenced by the severity of the failures: The SpaceX event involved no fatalities, but Virgin’s crash killed one pilot and seriously injured a second.
narrative：叙述，故事，讲述
fatality：死亡，不幸，灾祸
SpaceX一向在公司话语中提示失败的可能性，经常使用“如果任务成功”等词句。但维珍银河早已开始预售太空旅行坐席，并未强调失败的可能性，因此合理解释失败就更困难。两家公司的回应方式也受到失败严重程度的影响：SpaceX的事故并未造成人员死亡，维珍银河的事故却导致两名飞行员一死一重伤。
These findings highlight a core tension faced by innovating firms as they craft their first external narratives: Although the presumption of success helps entice external audiences, overplaying that expectation increases the difficulties later if things go awry. The researchers advise firms to seek a point of “optimal promise” in those early narratives, balancing “the zeal of success with the possibility of failure.”
optimal ：最佳的，最理想的
这些发现表明，创新型公司在首次对外传达信息时，面临一个重要矛盾：对成功的预期能引人关注，但过分强调成功预期，则可能在业务进展不顺时带来困难。研究者建议公司在早期对外沟通时寻找“最优承诺点”，在“成功的热望和失败的可能性之间找到平衡”。
王晨|译 蒋荟蓉|校 万艳|编辑 
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