Scale quickly or fail fast: An inductive study of acceleration

Raj K. Shankar and Tommy H. Clausen

Technovation, 2020, vol. 98, issue C

Abstract: Accelerators are a fast-growing form of entrepreneurship support. Literature about them remains descriptive and disjointed. While some consider them new, others believe them to be a next-generation incubator model. Based on a qualitative inductive study in India, with inputs from both accelerator executives and founders of accelerated ventures, we shift the analysis from the form (accelerator) to its underlying mechanism (acceleration). We identify at least three characteristics that make acceleration unique: a focus on product-market fit ventures; a focus on time-compressed scaling; and a focus on aggressive scalability testing. Our findings call for a shift in entrepreneurship support research (including accelerators) from “form” to “mechanism.” Entrepreneurs will find our three characteristics useful in assessing which programs truly accelerate, and therefore increase their chances of achieving scale. Accelerator executives can now distinguish their offerings from other support forms (e.g. incubators) by searching for ventures with product-market fit, offering time-compressed scaling services and testing the ventures’ ability to scale rapidly. University administrators and policymakers can use the findings to add acceleration (to support scaling) as a component of their entrepreneurial ecosystems. Implications and future research directions are discussed.

Keywords: Acceleration; Accelerator; Incubator; Entrepreneurship support; Entrepreneurial ecosystem (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (14)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0166497220300468
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

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:eee:techno:v:98:y:2020:i:c:s0166497220300468

DOI: 10.1016/j.technovation.2020.102174

Access Statistics for this article

Technovation is currently edited by Jonathan Linton

More articles in Technovation from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().