How to Accelerate Learning: Entrepreneurial Ventures Participating in Accelerator Programs

While prior research establishes that firms learn at different rates, less is known about how some firms accelerate learning. This study uses theory building and theory elaboration methods to suggest how organizations might accelerate learning. The research setting is accelerators, limited duration entrepreneurship education programs that accelerate learning during venture gestation. There are several findings. First, learning is accelerated via mentor whiplash - time compressed interactions with external advisors that delays implementation. Learning is also accelerated through cohort pacers - peer ventures who are concurrently both rivals and helpers. Finally, director visionaries accelerate learning by foreshadowing the future and transferring templates for novice entrepreneurs. More broadly, this study contributes to organizational theory by bringing to light the central, but heretofore hidden role of learning-coordination costs. This study also contributes to strategy by challenging the widely held assumption of time compression diseconomies and to entrepreneurship by pioneering academic research on the purpose and effectiveness of accelerators.