Abstract:

Purpose – In a broad view, this paper examines how entrepreneurs perceive different supports offered by startup accelerators (mentoring, education, and social networks) and which ones actually contribute to their venture’s growth. Focusing on the data-driven findings, it highlights networking with peer entrepreneurs as the most salient resource for learning and development, sidelining mentoring and education in favor of exploring the pathways and correlations between the entrepreneur’s traits (Passion, Tenacity, Growth Attainment, and Resource Creation) and their use of peer networks.

Design/methodology/approach – This article distills the core of a doctoral dissertation and supporting projects. The research used a mixed-methods design: first a qualitative phase to uncover which supports top entrepreneurs and accelerator leaders consider critical for growth, then a quantitative survey with Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS‑SEM) to test hypothesized relationships. Because the empirical results showed that networking with peers emerged as the dominant growth lever, this article emphasizes those findings and implications for both entrepreneurs and accelerators.

Findings – The results demonstrate that while traits like resource creation and growth orientation are antecedents to benefiting from accelerator offerings, only networking support has a strong, significant, and direct relationship to venture growth. Mentoring and education support showed weaker or non-significant paths in the full model. In particular, entrepreneurs who scored high in resource creation and growth orientation disproportionately capitalized on peer networking, which in turn mediated their growth outcomes.