Developing the Entrepreneurial Paradox Mindset: The Role of Startup Accelerators and Educational Programs

Michele Pinelli, Luca Pistilli and Alessio Cozzolino

Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 2025, vol. 49, issue 6, 1633-1668

Abstract: Startup founders often encounter paradoxical tensions. Yet, whether and how startup accelerators can equip founders to embrace such contradictions remains underexplored. Our study of Y Combinator reveals that accelerators can play a pivotal role in cultivating an entrepreneurial paradox mindset by exposing founders to teachings about paradoxical tensions, imparting heuristics to navigate them, and implementing thoughtful design choices to foster learning—particularly through vicarious and experiential learning opportunities. This study integrates paradox theory into entrepreneurship research, contributes to understanding the interplay between accelerator design choices and entrepreneurial learning, extends knowledge of entrepreneurial mindsets, and provides several practical insights.

Keywords: entrepreneurial education; paradox theory; startup accelerators; entrepreneurial mindset (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/10422587251347056 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:entthe:v:49:y:2025:i:6:p:1633-1668

DOI: 10.1177/10422587251347056

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().