Accelerators as a Format of Collaboration with Academia

As universities start to use new formats of open innovation in order to stay competitive and strengthen their positioning, a format of acceleration program is becoming widely used globally. Being less formalized and standardized, university accelerator underlies the concept of academic entrepreneurship and is targeted at resources. Resources vary from programs but in most cases include full-spectrum support: mentorship, training, education, licensing, possible collaboration with corporations, and investments. However, there is no integral perception of resource distribution, shared by participants and organizers of academic accelerators. How this difference of perception influence the overall acceleration process is observed in the master thesis. Goal-setting and its impact on stages of the accelerator are also covered. On the one hand, goal-setting performs as a pivotal stage that influences other operational, functional, and structural aspects of acceleration program. On the other hand, goals are determined at the beginning and the innovation ecosystem of a university acts like a dynamically changing environment. The master thesis a series of expert interviews with representatives of top university-linked academic programs. Among experts, there are members of accelerators and start-ups participants. The findings suggest university accelerator be a distinctive format of open innovations that goes beyond existing borders of academic entrepreneurship. Moreover, the differences between the two expert groups in the perception of shared resources and accumulated value are highlighted.