Accelerator expertise: Understanding the intermediary role of accelerators in the development of the Bangalore entrepreneurial ecosystem

Abstract

Research Summary: To understand the intermediary role of accelerators in the developing regional entrepreneurial ecosystem of Bangalore, we analyze data from 54 interviews with accelerator graduates, accelerator managers, and other ecosystem stakeholders and from 49 websites, 13 online video interviews, 26 online news sources, and 301 pages of policy documents. Specifically, we adopt a socially situated entrepreneurial cognition approach to theorize how accelerator expertise, existing at a meso‐level, intermediates between (micro‐level) founders and the (macro‐level) ecosystem. In our model, four types of accelerator expertise—connection, development, coordination, and selection—together increase stakeholders’ commitment to the entrepreneurial ecosystem, leading to venture validation (success or failure) and ecosystem additionality. These findings indicate that accelerators contribute to ecosystems in a way that is distinct from, but supportive of, building individual ventures. Managerial Summary: Accelerators are a new form of entrepreneurial support organization. These organizations typically focus on developing individual start‐ups, but we find that they also help develop entrepreneurial ecosystems. They do so by acting as a bridge between start‐ups and the broader entrepreneurial environmental resources by: (a) helping form connections, (b) helping develop individual start‐ups, (c) helping coordinate the right match among the various players in the ecosystem, and (d) helping select mentors and founders with the appropriate motivation and knowledge. As these accelerators apply this expertise in this go‐between role, they help build commitment to the broader ecosystem. Furthermore, they enable success (or fast failure) of individual start‐ups and do so in a way that develops the overall entrepreneurial capacity of the broader entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Cómo las aceleradoras de empresas fomentan las capacidades dinámicas de las start-ups: un estudio de caso

“…What is known about accelerators is based on the small number of peer-reviewed articles in which entrepreneurship scholars have been focused on examining them in order to reach a definition and distinguishing features (e.g Fishback et al, 2007;Cohen, 2013;Barbero et al, 2014;Hoffman and Radojevich-Kelley, 2012) or a taxonomy (e.g Cohen and Hochberg, 2014;Dempwolf et al, 2014;Hoffman and Radojevich-Kelley, 2012;Pauwels et al, 2016). Therefore, although positive effects of business accelerators have been reported (e.g Battistella, De Toni, & Pessot, 2017;Hallen, Bingham, & Cohen, 2017;Smith, Hannigan, & Gasiorowski, 2017), we still do not have a good understanding of their processes and the mechanisms through which business accelerators impact new ventures (Goswami et al, 2018;Hallen et al, 2017).…”

“…They are organizations acknowledged to play a transformative role in startups' development (Goswami et al, 2018) through the implementation of programs aimed at supporting their growth (Yusubova, A., & Clarysse, 2016).…”

“…In this sense, business accelerators through the use of routines and practices, aimed at generating these dynamic capabilities in their accelerated startups, would be enhancing their performance and success rate and thus, they would be playing a transformative role in new ventures' development (Goswami, Mitchell, & Bhagavatula, 2018;Pauwels et al, 2016;Yusubova, A., & Clarysse, 2016). Therefore, this view seems an appropriate theory to apply in order to analyze the mechanisms by which accelerators support startups' creation.…”

Digital affordances, spatial affordances, and the genesis of entrepreneurial ecosystems

“…The article by Goswami et al (2017, this Francis' work (e.g., Feldman & Francis, 2006). Consistent with our model, they emphasize the industry-agnostic character of entrepreneurial ecosystems.…”

Do we Lead Together? Leadership Behavioral Integration and Coordination in Entrepreneurial Ecosystems

“…There is a particular interest in understanding how the characteristics and participants of vibrant EEs, like Silicon Valley, Bangalore, and Sydney, produce high levels of entrepreneurial activity (e.g., Goswami, Mitchell, & Bhagavatula, ; Thompson, Purdy, & Ventresca, ). In examining vibrant EEs, studies have focused on identifying ecosystems' key components (e.g., investors and support organizations) (Albort‐Morant & Oghazi, ), the network structures that connect the components across levels (Neumeyer & Santos, ; Theodoraki & Messeghem, ), and ecosystems' lifecycles (Mack & Mayer, ; Roundy, Bradshaw, & Brockman, ).…”