Perceived Entrepreneur Quality and Company Performance: A Study of Accelerator Impact on Startups.

Authors

Henry Canfield, Florida International UniversityFollow

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree

Doctor of Business Administration

Major/Program

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First Advisor's Name

Walfried Lassar

First Advisor's Committee Title

Committee chair

Second Advisor's Name

George Marakas

Second Advisor's Committee Title

Committee member

Third Advisor's Name

Arun Upadhyay

Third Advisor's Committee Title

Committee member

Fourth Advisor's Name

Wendy Guess

Fourth Advisor's Committee Title

Committee member

Keywords

Entrepreneur, accelerator, startup, growth, performance

Date of Defense

6-25-2021

Abstract

When talking about entrepreneurship, an immense ecosystem appears, from startups success and funding, to public policies and the entrepreneur itself. This applied research study the entrepreneur’s characteristics, using as guide the Traits, Skills and Motivation model from Baum and Locke (2004), within a selected group of entrepreneurs that are part of Accelerator programs, focused to understanding the accelerator contribution to the entrepreneur and its company growth. The study was developed by a qualitative phase with semi-structure in-depth interviews with these entrepreneurs and accelerator’s executives, resulting in rich data coded using Nvivo software, and serving as base for the model design and the quantitative phase definitions. During the quantitative phase, an online survey was deployed to all members of 9 accelerators, returning 102 valid responses statistically analyzed using PLS-SEM. Results confirmed that the entrepreneur’s Passion has high impact on Resource Creation and Growth Attainment, and shown that participation intensity on Education programs does not have a significant impact on company’s growth – in opposite to the other two activities also provided by the Accelerators: Networking and Mentoring, presenting a high impact on growth.

Identifier

FIDC010211

Recommended Citation

Canfield, Henry, "Perceived Entrepreneur Quality and Company Performance: A Study of Accelerator Impact on Startups." (2021). FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 4774.
https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/4774