Failing to succeed : How can an accelerator facilitate learning from failure?

Abstract

This master thesis aims at exploring how accelerator programs can facilitate learning from failure. Failure, defined as deviance from desired results, has seen a shift in its surrounding literature. Instead of perceiving failure as something to punish and avoid at all costs, an increasing number of researchers now recognise failure as valuable source of learning. Often tacit, learning for failure relies on peer to peer knowledge sharing for the lesson to be transferred. Although these concepts have been explored in more traditional organisational settings, little to no research has explored how accelerator programs facilitate learning from failure. Learning to identify and analyse failure could be a valuable tool even after the startup has completed the accelerator program, but how does Norwegian accelerator programs facilitate learning from failure? To answer this, we have performed an inductive explorative study of two accelerator programs located in downtown Oslo, Norway. Our research revealed that the participating entrepreneurs and facilitators of the accelerator program view failure as a source of learning, but revealed few concrete actions aimed at learning from failure. Our research indicates that there is an imbalance between the perceived focus on learning from failure, and the concrete actions implemented in the accelerator program. In our thesis, we present current practises identified through our study and present new actions accelerator could implement to improve their entrepreneur’s capitalisation on failure.