Focus on the differences between independent accelerators and corporate accelerators.
Corporate accelerators are accelerators set up by corporates, such as AT&T’s Aspire Accelerator, The bridge by Coca Cola, or Google’s Launchpad accelerator. Corporates launch these programs to create their own entrepreneurial ecosystems within their industry. This allows them to detect emerging trends and invest in new technology early on. For the scope of this thesis, the concept corporate accelerators will be demarcated to in-house corporate accelerators,.
Independent accelerators include companies such as; Y combinator, 500 Startups, and Techstars. These companies operate independently, but can access large amounts of capital through VC funds.
My current theoretical model is as follows:
Accelerator program type -> Access to resources -> Startup employee growth.
Attached you will find the preliminary proposal for this thesis.
Here are the 4 theorethical research questions I would like answered in the literature review.
1. What are independent and corporate accelerators according to recent literature?
2. What are the motives for startups to participate in an accelerator?
3. How is employee growth associated with economic welfare development?
4. What is the relationship between the type of accelerator and employee growth?
And, as mentioned above, it would be great if you could find a 3rd variable for my theoretical model (to replace “access to resources”). This could be a mediating or moderating variable between “accelerator type” and “startup growth”
