Fostering the growth of student start-ups from university accelerators: an entrepreneurial ecosystem perspective

Abstract

Despite their significance, firms created by students have been the subject of little research. Adopting the entrepreneurial ecosystem framework, this paper examines the growth of student start-ups, especially those that participate in university accelerators. Focused on the University of Toronto, this paper contributes to an understanding of how university accelerators can better support the entrepreneurial efforts of students. It is clear that firms that participate in accelerators with a screening process have a stronger performance in both employment and product growth. Moreover, a habitual entrepreneur director or a more intensive accelerator program is found to have more positive effects on product growth at firms than on employment growth.

Deconstructing the ivory tower: identifying challenges of university-industry ecosystem partnerships

“…Entrepreneurial ecosystems emphasise interdependence between actors and factors, viewing entrepreneurship as an output of the ecosystem (Acs et al 2017). Universities significantly contribute to entrepreneurship (Breznitz and Zhang 2019). Existing research has utilised case studies to explore how universities have established entrepreneurial ecosystems, such as highlighting the ways in which academics engage in the entrepreneurship process (Lahikainen et al 2019) exploring the role of technology transfer offices in developing an entrepreneurial ecosystem (Schaeffer and Matt 2016) or elucidating how campuses operate as ecosystems themselves (Miller and Acs 2017).…”

“…Existing research has utilised case studies to explore how universities have established entrepreneurial ecosystems, such as highlighting the ways in which academics engage in the entrepreneurship process (Lahikainen et al 2019) exploring the role of technology transfer offices in developing an entrepreneurial ecosystem (Schaeffer and Matt 2016) or elucidating how campuses operate as ecosystems themselves (Miller and Acs 2017). Breznitz and Zhang (2019) further elucidate the role of the university in the entrepreneurial ecosystem through examining how a university operates as an accelerator for student start-ups. Brito (2018) applied a case study methodology to examine the central role of universities within their innovation ecosystem, finding that universities act as leaders and integrators.…”

Whither modern business incubation? Definitions, evolution, theory, and evaluation

“…within a region to avoid a mismatch with what the university can do. Studies of the use of student incubators and as pedagogy and experiential training for transforming innovative student projects into innovative ventures are on the rise (Metcalf et al 2020;Breznitz and Zhang 2019;Mian et al 2010). This potential must be tapped.…”

Entrepreneurial ecosystems: towards a systemic approach to entrepreneurship?

“…There is however no common agreement on the specific geographic scale of EEs. It ranges mainly from very limited geographic scales like university campuses (Breznitz & Zhang, 2019;Miller & Acs, 2017) to cities (Audretsch & Belitski, 2017;Feld, 2012;Motoyama & Watkins, 2014), to the regional level (Cohen, 2006;Mack & Mayer, 2016) and up to the national level (Acs et al, 2014;Frenkel & Maital, 2014).…”