Digital Startups Accelerators: Characteristics and Evolution Trends

In a period where economies face challenges on a global scale, entrepreneurship is an alternative and viable option for many people. Due to the considerable impact it has on the economic development of a region, many authors have studied this subject throughout the years, so the literature available is quite rich and complete. Entrepreneurial ecosystems include numerous entities that interact with each other in unique symbiosis relationships and these entities may be startups, universities, the government, investors and organizations that provide support to the startups in their development stages, such as accelerators, incubators and co-working spaces. However, some of these entities, especially the startup accelerators, are still very recent, since the first one was only launched in 2005. For that reason, there still is not an in-depth study on this subject and there are not many rigorous conclusions with regards to the nature and impact of these organizations, that are believed to play a very important role in the development of startups. Therefore, this dissertation is motived by that lack of rigorous knowledge on the subject of accelerators. The development of a research work of this kind may be a valuable contribution for the current knowledge on the subject, as well as for future research. The objective of this dissertation is to analyse the actual and future trends of accelerators, considering a worldwide scale, with a particular focus on their business models, acceleration programs, strategies, challenges and priorities for the future. This thesis is based on an in-depth literature review, which includes the most relevant concepts about entrepreneurship and accelerators. Following the literature review, there is an empirical study that is based on an online survey that was carried out amongst accelerators, which benefits from its strong statistical component. Moreover, there are Case Studies based on some organizations’ business models, that are relevant for the analysis. Throughout this research work, we concluded that accelerators are a worldwide phenomenon, due to the impact they have both in the development of the startups, as well as in the economic development of the region they operate in. Moreover, these organizations have different business models and, according to their nature and characteristics, they have distinct ways of facing the challenges and priorities for the future