Benefits perceived by Participating Start-ups through Online Corporate Accelerator Programmes
(2021) ENTN19 20211Department of Business Administration
- Abstract
- Participation in corporate accelerator programmes is considered a powerful tool for early-stage start-ups for operational go-to-market and strategic business development acceleration. With the COVID-19 outbreak, all the activities related to the corporate accelerators were forced to move online. However, due to the novelty of the phenomenon, the influence of switching the modality of corporate accelerators remains unexplored. Hence, the thesis aims to understand the influence of the online mode of corporate accelerator programmes on the benefits gained by participating start-ups. Based on an abductive approach, semi-structured interviews were conducted with start-ups that participated in the online and offline batches of a Swedish... (More)
- Participation in corporate accelerator programmes is considered a powerful tool for early-stage start-ups for operational go-to-market and strategic business development acceleration. With the COVID-19 outbreak, all the activities related to the corporate accelerators were forced to move online. However, due to the novelty of the phenomenon, the influence of switching the modality of corporate accelerators remains unexplored. Hence, the thesis aims to understand the influence of the online mode of corporate accelerator programmes on the benefits gained by participating start-ups. Based on an abductive approach, semi-structured interviews were conducted with start-ups that participated in the online and offline batches of a Swedish corporate accelerator held in 2019 and 2020. The multiple case analysis identified similarities and differences regarding the perception of benefits gained by the start-ups from online and offline batches and their relation to specific support services (educational activities, mentoring, coaching, networking and Demo Day). The empirical findings outline the relevance of Computer-Mediated Communication theories to the influence of the online modality of the programme and explain the identified correlations between the benefits perceived by the participating start-ups and the provided support services. The study concludes that the influence of the online delivery mode is affected by the amount of time start-ups need to adapt to the new settings and the establishment of shared values of efficient communication. Furthermore, the content of the educational activities is also identified as a moderator of the influence of the modality of the programme. Lastly, this study allows corporate accelerators to use the identified interpretations for planning and structuring further online programmes. As a result, the thesis suggests conducting future research to (1) test the theoretical assumptions in other corporate accelerator programmes, (2) acknowledge the influence of start-ups’ motivations, founder’s professional background and prior acceleration experience on perceived benefits; and (3) expand the scope of the research to other accelerator types and incubators. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9061156
- author
- Marchetti, Romina LU and Sukhina, Daryna LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- ENTN19 20211
- year
- 2021
- type
- H1 - Master's Degree (One Year)
- subject
- keywords
- accelerator, corporate accelerator, online mode, acceleration benefits, acceleration support services, Computer-Mediated Communication Theory, Social Presence Theory, Social Information Processing Theory
- language
- English
- id
- 9061156
- date added to LUP
- 2021-07-30 15:42:58
- date last changed
- 2021-07-30 15:42:58
@misc{9061156,
abstract = {{Participation in corporate accelerator programmes is considered a powerful tool for early-stage start-ups for operational go-to-market and strategic business development acceleration. With the COVID-19 outbreak, all the activities related to the corporate accelerators were forced to move online. However, due to the novelty of the phenomenon, the influence of switching the modality of corporate accelerators remains unexplored. Hence, the thesis aims to understand the influence of the online mode of corporate accelerator programmes on the benefits gained by participating start-ups. Based on an abductive approach, semi-structured interviews were conducted with start-ups that participated in the online and offline batches of a Swedish corporate accelerator held in 2019 and 2020. The multiple case analysis identified similarities and differences regarding the perception of benefits gained by the start-ups from online and offline batches and their relation to specific support services (educational activities, mentoring, coaching, networking and Demo Day). The empirical findings outline the relevance of Computer-Mediated Communication theories to the influence of the online modality of the programme and explain the identified correlations between the benefits perceived by the participating start-ups and the provided support services. The study concludes that the influence of the online delivery mode is affected by the amount of time start-ups need to adapt to the new settings and the establishment of shared values of efficient communication. Furthermore, the content of the educational activities is also identified as a moderator of the influence of the modality of the programme. Lastly, this study allows corporate accelerators to use the identified interpretations for planning and structuring further online programmes. As a result, the thesis suggests conducting future research to (1) test the theoretical assumptions in other corporate accelerator programmes, (2) acknowledge the influence of start-ups’ motivations, founder’s professional background and prior acceleration experience on perceived benefits; and (3) expand the scope of the research to other accelerator types and incubators.}},
author = {{Marchetti, Romina and Sukhina, Daryna}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Benefits perceived by Participating Start-ups through Online Corporate Accelerator Programmes}},
year = {{2021}},
}