ACCELERATOR-FACILITATED MENTORING IN ENTREPRENEURSHIP: THE SWIFT PSYCHOLOGICAL CONTRACT PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

Mentorship is an essential aspect of entrepreneur development, particularly in the nascent stages of building a startup. An entrepreneur gains initial traction by receiving knowledge, advice, and resources from experts, such as mentors. The existing literature focuses on the conventional process in mentorship, in which an entrepreneur searches for a mentor and establishes the mentorship organically. However, entrepreneurs participating in an accelerator program may be matched to mentors. The matching process can impact the trajectory and dynamics of the mentorship, but the mechanisms are less understood. Leveraging a case study of an accelerator program, we find that the accelerator’s paternalistic matching of entrepreneurs and mentors and design of structured lessons shaped the expectations of mentors and entrepreneurs and guided their interactions. Our findings extend psychological contract theory by identifying how accelerator intervention led to the formation of swift psychological contract between entrepreneurs and mentors. Swift psychological contract refers to the quick construction of calibrated expectations in the absence of significant prior interactions between two focal parties. While swift psychological contract enabled entrepreneurs and the assigned mentor to engage in mentorship activities and learn expeditiously, the interaction was cursory with low resource commitment from the mentors.