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2019 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

2. Entrepreneurs, Ecosystems, and Accelerators

Authors : Peter W. Roberts, Saurabh A. Lall

Published in: Observing Acceleration

Publisher: Springer International Publishing

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Abstract

To understand the work that accelerators are asked to do around the world, it is first necessary to understand the interplay between entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial ecosystems. When navigating the paths from promising ideas to successful companies, entrepreneurs rely on a host of individuals, organizations, and institutions to close various knowledge, network, and capital gaps. For certain entrepreneurs developing certain business ideas in certain places, the breadth and depth of the local ecosystems allow this to happen; not with absolute certainty, but with sufficient regularity to ensure a steady stream of new high-growth companies. Just think about the many white male entrepreneurs starting technology companies in Silicon Valley. For other entrepreneurs, like the founders of Togo’s first cashew processor or an Indian off-grid energy provider, these local ecosystems are much less robust. Therefore, a host of accelerators are setting up to target underserved and underestimated entrepreneurs who start impact-oriented ventures in these entrepreneurial dead spaces. We round out this chapter by using survey data collected by GALI researchers to explore this impressive global growth of accelerators. This sets the stage and provides context for the many observations that are presented throughout this book.

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Figure 2.1 underestimates the true count of accelerators because new organizations are emerging all the time. Also, the GALI research efforts are constrained by language barriers and so their numbers probably underestimate the number of organizations working in East Asia (and some other regions).
 
40
Many of the organizations in the GALI sample run multiple programs. However, the GALI survey is administered at the organization level and asks questions about the accelerator programs as a whole.
 
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There are some interesting funding differences when it comes to emerging-market accelerators. On average, the organizations that run accelerators from headquarters in high-income countries rely more on corporate funding. On the other hand, emerging-market programs rely slightly more on philanthropic and government support. Emerging-market accelerators also rely more on fees paid by participating ventures (9 percent compared to 1 percent of the high-income country accelerators) and on consulting services (7 percent compared to 4 percent the high-income country accelerators) as their primary source of income.
 
Metadata
Title
Entrepreneurs, Ecosystems, and Accelerators
Authors
Peter W. Roberts
Saurabh A. Lall
Copyright Year
2019
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-00042-4_2