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September 14, 2026Small Business EconomicsOpen Access

One size does not fit all: Why do some new ventures benefit from participating in accelerators more than others?

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Authors

SLShelly Lev-KorenMEMiriam Erez

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Overview

Longitudinal study reveals that structured learning and pivoting drive performance in early-stage ventures, indicating accelerator benefits depend heavily on initial product knowledge endowments.

Key Points

  • To examine why early-stage ventures derive differing benefits from accelerator programs by evaluating the joint effects of pre-entry product knowledge, structured learning, and mentoring dynamics on graduation performance and two-year survival.
  • Analyzed a longitudinal dataset of N=90 early-stage ventures across 11 cohorts within a single entrepreneurial ecosystem.
  • Collected data across four distinct intervals: program entry, midpoint, graduation (Demo Day), and 2 years post-graduation.
  • Assessed structured learning via absorptive capacity dimensions (acquisition, assimilation, transformation, and exploitation) and mentoring via interaction intensity and intentional pivoting.
  • Pre-entry core product knowledge strongly predicted both Demo Day graduation performance and venture survival up to 2 years later.
  • Ventures with lower initial product knowledge derived significantly greater performance gains from cohort-based structured learning programs than those with higher pre-entry knowledge.
  • Mentoring intensity yielded positive effects on performance and survival only when ventures translated mentor advice into intentional pivoting.

Cite This Study

Lev-Koren et al. (2026) studied this question.

synapsesocial.com/papers/6aa7b3df0926e14a848b3252https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-026-01279-4
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