How do technology-based accelerators build their legitimacy as new organizations in an emerging entrepreneurship?
- Publisher:
- Emerald
- Publication Type:
- Journal Article
- Citation:
- Journal of Entrepreneurship in Emerging Economies, 2023, pp. 1-37
- Issue Date:
- 2023-01-01
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Purpose This paper aims to understand technology-based accelerators’ legitimation efforts in an emerging entrepreneurship ecosystem.
Design/methodology/approach This research is based on qualitative inductive methodology using ten Turkish technology-based accelerators.
Findings Our analysis indicates that accelerators’ legitimation efforts are shaped around (i) crafting a distinctive identity and mobilizing allies around this identity and (ii) establishing new collaborations to enable collective action. Further, we observe two types of technology-based accelerators, namely “deal flow makers” and “welfare stimulators” in Turkey. These variations among accelerators affect how they build their legitimacy. Different types of accelerators make alliances with different actors in the entrepreneurship ecosystem. Accelerators take collective action to build a collective identity and simultaneously imply how they are distinguished from other organizations in the same category and the ones in the old category.
Originality The study presents a framework to understand how accelerators employ strategies and actions to legitimize themselves as new organizations and advocate new norms, values, and routines in an emerging entrepreneurship ecosystem. The framework also highlights how different accelerators support legitimacy building by managing the judgments of diverse audiences and increasing the variety of resources these audiences provide to the ecosystem.
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