Impact of Accelerators, as Education & Training Programs, on Female Entrepreneurs

Abstract Given the importance of entrepreneurship for economic development through social and economic transformation, entrepreneurship education and training (EET) is growing throughout the world. The research on EET is also expanding and there is a need to better understand the impact of EET on business performance and its differential effect in men and women. Accelerators are entrepreneurship EET programs. Based on human capital theory, the paper uses Accelerators to assess the impact of EET programs on startup business performance. Given that female entrepreneurs’ human capital attributes are different from those of men and that the various components of Accelerator programs have been found to produce a differential effect on women, the paper proposes that Accelerators have the potential to produce a more pronounced positive effect in startups founded by female founders. We test this conjecture by exploring the impact of Accelerators in startup fundraising, in which female entrepreneurs face a significant gap. Our results confirm that female entrepreneurs who go through Accelerators increase their chances of receiving Venture Capital financing and that the marginal effect is larger for female than for male entrepreneurs.