Accelerating from Zero to Global Hero : A Multiple-Case Study of Accelerators promoting Participants to become Born Globals

Abstract: In recent years, accelerators have gained increasingly attention due to their numerical growth, geographic dispersion, and growing numbers of participants they have worked with. Uber, Airbnb, Dropbox or Reddit – they have not only been participants of accelerators, but they can also be identified as ‘Born Globals’ according to the definition used throughout this thesis. Considering this fact and the lack of research in theory on the interrelation of both phenomena, accelerators and Born Global, it is interesting to dig deeper into the impact accelerators have on their respective participants’ global development. For this purpose, the authors conducted a multiple-case study to find answers to the question of what elements of accelerators promote participants to become Born Globals. This multiple-case study included semi-structured interviews with managers of four different cases of accelerators and three respective former participants as well as complementarily used secondary data in terms of company documents. Drawing from empirical evidence, it was found that the major elements of the examined accelerators fostering the participants’ development towards Born Globals can be summarized into five major categories: ’Application Process’, ’Interpersonal Connections’, ’Product & Coaching Methodologies’, ’Education’, and ‘Startup Community & Entrepreneurial Ecosystem’.