Valentina A. Assenova

Valentina Assenova and Raffi Amit (2023), Poised For Growth: Exploring the Relationship Between Accelerator Program Design and Startup Performance, Conditionally accepted, Strategic Management Journal.

Abstract: Accelerator programs provide valuable market feedback and education to participants that may improve startup performance. However, it is unclear whether the average effect of accelerator participation on startup performance is positive, and if so, how this effect varies with program design. To answer these questions, we analyze data from 8,580 applicants that made it past the initial selection stage at 408 accelerators in 176 countries between 2013 and 2019. We compare accelerated and non-accelerated startups and find that the effect of accelerator participation on future performance is positive, on average. Comparing accelerated startups across cohorts and programs, we find that these benefits vary widely with program design. Our findings highlight the significance of program design in the benefits that startups derive from accelerator participation.  

Aparajita Agarwal and Valentina Assenova (2023), Mobile Money as a Stepping Stone to Financial Inclusion: How Digital Multisided Platforms Fill Institutional Voids, Organization Science. https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2022.16562

Abstract: The literature on institutional voids examines how intermediaries, such as business groups and business incubators, address such voids in emerging economies. However, it remains unclear whether and how digital multisided platforms fill these voids given their unique features. This study focuses on mobile money platforms, which allow users without bank accounts or credit cards to perform financial transactions. We propose that these platforms !ll institutional voids in three ways by (i) enabling data-based certification, (ii) providing unified access to distributed services, and (iii) scaling through network effects to reach previously excluded market participants. We argue that these novel mechanisms enable mobile money platforms to expand credit access to end users from formal financial institutions and thereby act as stepping stones to financial inclusion. Our analysis is based on a difference-in-difference design that leverages regulatory changes that allowed nonbanks to operate as mobile money operators and data from a representative random sample of 151,771 individuals in 78 countries. We supplement our quantitative analysis with rich, hand-collected qualitative evidence to illustrate the mechanisms underlying our findings.

Ethan J. Poskanzer and Valentina Assenova (Working), Integrated Business and Technical Skills Training and Entry into Technology Entrepreneurship.

Abstract: We examine the impact of business and technical skills training on long-term career outcomes in technology entrepreneurship and employment. We suggest that such integrated training enhances the ability of potential entrepreneurs to establish new technology ventures and that the skills gained through this training are beneficial for subsequent technology employment. Moreover, we posit that aspiring entrepreneurs benefit more from integrated training if they have limited prior knowledge and experience in these domains. To test these hypotheses, we analyze data from applicants to an intensive, year-long entrepreneurship training program in Accra, Ghana over two cohorts between 2018 and 2020. Our results indicate that integrated training positively influences entry into technology entrepreneurship and technology employment, offering valuable insights about how to foster entry in the technology sector.

Valentina Assenova and Sandy Yu (Under Review), Which Benefits of Startup Accelerators do Founders Prioritize, and Why?.

Abstract: Startup accelerators offer many potential benefits for new venture development. While the literature has focused on accelerator selection criteria, the nuances of applicants’ benefit preferences remain largely unexplored. We analyze the preferences of 21,541 founding teams that applied to 407 accelerator programs in 177 countries, and find that: (1) applicants chiefly value network development, investor access, and mentorship, clustering preferences into three distinct groupings: capabilities, credibility, and cohort; (2) venture attributes account for 84-98% of the benefit preference variance, dwarfing program and industry effects; and (3) founder backgrounds shape these preferences, with under-represented founders seeking capabilities and credibility, whereas other founders favor capital and connections. Our research underscores the need for tailored accelerator programming, spotlighting avenues to optimize program design based on founders’ varied backgrounds.

Valentina Assenova (Working), Scaling for Good: Do Social Impact Accelerators Propel Social Venture Growth and Development?.

Abstract: The rise of social impact accelerators (SIAs), such as climate and sustainability accelerators, has prompted inquiries about their value to social ventures – entrepreneurial endeavors that employ innovative business models and sustainable business practices to tackle societal grand challenges, such as climate change. This study evaluates the role of SIAs in scaling social ventures using a large-scale database of 18,680 social ventures and their founding teams that applied to 404 accelerator programs, of which 43% had an explicit social impact focus. Using an inverse probability of treatment weights design, I find that accelerated social ventures in both generalist accelerators and SIAs scaled faster than similar non-accelerated ventures that applied to these programs. However, social ventures accelerated through SIAs scaled faster than those accelerated through generalist programs: they raised more philanthropic funding, were more likely to raise venture capital and raised more capital, had higher planned fundraising, and were more likely to scale their full-time employment. Social ventures accelerated through SIAs experienced greater scaling of philanthropic funding and revenue when more peers in their cohort adopted formal impact evaluation metrics, such as GIIRS. These findings highlight the nuanced ways that SIAs support social venture scaling and development.

Valentina Assenova, Martin Gonzalez, Ndubuisi Ugwuanyi (Working), Do leadership capabilities shape the performance trajectories of early-stage startups?.

Abstract: Grounded in the startup accelerators literature, we evaluate whether the leadership capabilities of founders and C-suite executives as assessed by co-founders, employees, investors, and advisory board members during their time in the accelerator predict startups’ future performance trajectories. Analyzing data on 430 technology-focused startups that participated in the Google for Startups accelerators and their 966 founders and C-suite executives, we find that startups with more effective leaders as evaluated by affiliates achieved higher revenue, innovation, funding, scaling, and longevity post acceleration. We examine leaders’ multi-rater feedback evaluations by their 7,371 affiliates using a validated 33-item scale to understand what behaviors distinguish leaders who achieve superior ratings by affiliates. Our findings underscore the critical importance of leadership capabilities in startups’ future performance trajectories.

Valentina Assenova and Melody Chang (Under Review), Founders’ Human Capital and Startup Performance: Treatment or Selection Effects?.

Abstract: Prior research consistently shows a positive correlation between founders’ education and experience and startup performance. However, this relationship may be driven by either treatment effects, whereby more educated and experienced founders attain superior performance, or selection effects, whereby these founders are more likely to secure resources, resulting in a positive correlation with startup performance. We investigate the role of these treatment versus selection effects in the context of startup accelerators, early filters for investment. Using an abductive approach, we find that founders’ education and experience are not predictive of accelerators’ initial acceptance, but increase a founder’s likelihood of participation, conditional on acceptance. Our findings suggest that the observed positive correlation between founder human capital and startup performance is driven by selection, rather than treatment, effects.

Valentina Assenova and Raffi Amit (Under Revision), Why are Some Nations More Entrepreneurial than Others? Unraveling the Link Between Cultural Tightness-Looseness and New Firm Creation.

Abstract: Grounded in cultural systems theory, we evaluate the role of cultural variation along the tightness-looseness continuum as a potential explanation for cross-national differences in the propensity to engage in entrepreneurship. Employing a novel research design that instruments for cultural tightness-looseness, we investigate whether greater cultural looseness explains higher rates of new firm creation using global data on entrepreneurship rates from national business registries. Our results reveal that the construct of cultural tightness-looseness explains 40 percent of the variation in new firm creation rates per 1000 people in the working age population in a sample of 57 nations. Nations with higher cultural looseness also exhibit stronger cultural support for entrepreneurship, greater entrepreneurial opportunity perception, and greater entrepreneurial aspirations, on average, than those with lower cultural looseness.

Description: Revision invited, Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal

Valentina Assenova, Emilie Feldman, Lori Rosenkopf (Working), A Strategic Multiplexity Perspective on Innovation Diffusion.

Abstract: We apply a strategic multiplexity perspective to analyze how the simultaneous consideration of multiple types of ties in a network can sharpen our understanding of innovation diffusion in that network. While prior research suggests that multiplex ties increase information flow and thereby facilitate innovation uptake in networks, this prediction may not hold when conflicts exist among some of these ties. Accordingly, we evaluate how conflicts among actors’ multiplex ties may reduce innovation uptake in the context of a field experiment where privately informed agents were asked to share microfinance information with their contacts. We find that microfinance uptake is lower when agents also had financial lending ties to non-relatives that could be compromised by sharing information about a new microfinance opportunity.

Valentina Assenova and Aparajita Agarwal, “Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Africa”. In The Handbook of Sociology of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, edited by Olav Sorenson and Patricia H. Thornton, (De Gruyter, 2023)

Abstract: Entrepreneurship and innovation are pivotal for Africa’s economic progress. However, the continent faces a dearth of investment, with the existing venture capital (VC) majorly channeled towards fintech, sidelining other sectors. Despite the growing VC interest, African entrepreneurs grapple with barriers such as high startup costs, restrictive capital requirements, limited access to financing, regulatory issues, and concerns about bribery of government officials and low trust in governance. Institutional hindrances, the prevalence of informal businesses, management quality issues, and concentrated firm ownership further exacerbate the innovation deficit. Conversely, Africa shows promise with expanding VC investments, budding fintech sectors that can bolster financial inclusion, such as mobile-money platforms, and a surge in female entrepreneurship. Moreover, the continent is becoming a center for financial technology innovations and boasts a rising presence of startup accelerators and incubators, which offer pivotal support to early-stage ventures. This chapter offers a comprehensive look at these facets, intertwining entrepreneurship and innovation in Africa, addressing challenges, and highlighting opportunities and policy-related questions for future exploration.

Description: Forthcoming in the De Gruyter Handbook of Sociology of Innovation and Entrepreneurship Olav Sorenson and Patricia H. Thornton, Editors