Corporate Accelerator and Start-up Performance

Abstract

Corporate accelerators (CA) are a rapidly growing institutional phenomenon. As agile innovation units they offer start-ups fixed-term coaching programs, designed to provide benefits for start-ups and corporations. Although their proliferation is evident, little is known about their efficacy and drivers of performance. Analyzing a hand-collected novel dataset containing more than 200 start-ups across 15 CA programs located throughout Germany, our results suggest that while start-ups benefit from small, specialized and industry-specific programs through synergies and economies of scale and scope; increasing specialization generates also disadvantages for the accelerated start-ups. Lock-in effects and hold-up problems make it difficult to raise follow-up financing.

Keywords: corporate venturing, innovation, entrepreneurship, corporate accelerator (CA), autonomy, specialization

JEL Classification: G24, L25, L26, M13, O3