An Investigation of Assessors Decision-Making in Pre-acceleration’s Selection Process

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Faculty Member, Faculty of Management, Kharazmi University, Tehran, Iran

2 Faculty Member, Faculty of Economics Management and Social Sciences, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran

Abstract

Accelerators have become important players in entrepreneurial ecosystems recently. These start-ups support organizations use a different evaluation and selection process than other business models such as incubators. The main reason for this difference is the high uncertainty of the start-ups in the early stages. Therefore, in order to evaluate start-up applicants, assessors must develop methods that are appropriate for decision making taking into account incomplete and limited information with high variability. This research aims to identify how expert assessors decide whether to accept or reject an applicant for the pre-acceleration. Examining the 32 verbal protocols from IT accelerators in Tehran it was found that they use the “one reason decision making”, which consists of search, stop, and decision rules. The innovation of this research can be considered in the use of think aloud method and analysis of verbal protocols in the framework of ecological rationality.

Keywords

Main Subjects

References

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History

  • Receive Date: 01 August 2021
  • Revise Date: 12 December 2021
  • Accept Date: 17 January 2022

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