Identifing the role of mentors in creating new businesses in accelerator

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Assistant Professor, Faculty of Entrepreneurship, University of Tehran

2 Masters Student in Entrepreneurship Management, University of Tehran

3 Associate Professor, Faculty of Entrepreneurship, University of Tehran

Abstract

Entrepreneurs face a variety of challenges before and during launching their businesses, and mentors have an effective role in promoting their capabilities in order to face those challenges. Therefore, this research aimed to identify the role of a mentor in starting-up new businesses by novice entrepreneurs in accelerators. This research is applied in terms of purpose, and follows an event based qualitative approach in which semi-structured interviews were employed in order to identify various aspects of mentors’ (cognitive, affective and managerial) roles. Purposeful and snowball sampling methods were used for the selection of the mentors. Sampling and interviews were continued until reaching theoretical saturation. Although, in the 14th interview, theoretical saturation was achieved, to insure the credibility of the findings the interviews continued to the 17th sample. Analysis of the data and integration of the categories and components of mentor’s roles revealed that they have played two distinctive roles including: indirect and direct. Totally, 38 categories were identified that were classified into three dimensions (cognitive, affective managerial). Furthermore, two dimensions of learning and new technologies emerged from this study and were added to the framework employed in this study

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References

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Journal of Entrepreneurship Development
Volume 10, Issue 2 - Serial Number 36
September 2017
Pages 241-257

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