Start-up accelerator value chain: a systematic literature review

Accelerators are the crucial foundations that influence development of the entrepreneurial ecosystem and new venture creations. Although about 10 years have passed since the establishment of the first accelerator in the United States, there are still many dark spots about the accelerator’s operations and services as well as their position and value in the entrepreneurial ecosystem. In this study, an attempt has been made to systematically review the articles published in the field of start-up accelerators to shed light on the dark spots. To this end, 51 articles and review articles published in the Q1 and Q2 journals of the Scopus citation database, were systematically and deeply studied. Parts of the main results of this research include the process of acceleration, the accelerator’s services, the investing framework of accelerators, the success and risk factors of accelerators, and eventually antecedents as well as consequences of an accelerator. Finally, inspired by the Porter's value chain model, the accelerator value chain is presented as the final model of this study.