Oasis in the desert or icing on the cake? The impact of entrepreneurship accelerators across ecosystems

The effectiveness of accelerators in fostering new venture development has traditionally been attributed to variations in their internal operations and design, with limited consideration of contextual factors. This study broadens the understanding of accelerators by situating their roles in relation to entrepreneurial ecosystems and introducing a multi-level framework on how macro-level institutions and meso-level accelerator programs interact to shape venture growth. By linking organizational theories on accelerators with institutional economics, this research juxtaposes and tests two perspectives: institutional voids and institutional support. On the one hand, accelerators address institutional voids by acting as intermediaries in entrepreneurial resource markets through knowledge and resource curation, network brokerage, and signaling. On the other hand, the effectiveness of these intermediation roles is constrained by the quality of institutions. Contrary to the prevailing belief that accelerators deliver greater value in underdeveloped institutional environments with inefficient entrepreneurial resource markets, the findings reveal that ventures in such contexts derive less growth benefit from accelerators. This study contributes to the growing body of comparative and international accelerator research and offers broader implications for meso-level intervention programs, suggesting these programs require working in concert with robust ecosystems rather than operating in isolation in order to achieve their intended objectives.