Valentina A. Assenova

• Melody Chang and Valentina Assenova (2025), Founders’ Pre-Entry Knowledge and the Heterogeneous Returns to Accelerator Participation, Strategic Management Journal. http://doi.org/10.1002/smj.70032 Abstract

  While startup accelerators often benefit founders and their ventures, these gains may not be uniform. We examine how founders’ pre-entry knowledge – the cumulative education, industry experience, and entrepreneurial exposure that teams acquire prior to launching their startups – shapes the heterogeneous returns to accelerator participation. We propose two potential mechanisms driving these returns: knowledge compensation, whereby accelerators fill gaps in basic knowledge and competencies, and knowledge complementarity, whereby accelerators amplify absorption and deployment of expert knowledge. Using data from 6,723 startups and their founding teams, we find evidence in support of the complementarity mechanism. Our findings also suggest that the returns to acceleration are contingent on the alignment between founders’ pre-entry knowledge and program design.

  Description
  While startup accelerators aim to level the entrepreneurial playing field, we find that founders with substantial pre-entry knowledge and experience tend to gain more from participation in these programs than novice entrepreneurs, potentially widening startup performance gaps. Program design also appears to play a key role. While specialized and unstructured programs offer value for seasoned entrepreneurs by building complementary knowledge, structured and generalist programs offer some, albeit limited, opportunities for less-experienced teams to build foundational skills. These findings underscore the need for tailored programming that aligns with participants' learning needs. For program designers and policymakers, these findings suggest investing in diverse formats to support varied founder profiles. For entrepreneurs, they highlight the importance of selecting programs that complement and build upon their team's prior knowledge.
• Valentina Assenova, Accelerators and the Formation of Entrepreneurial Ventures (Cambridge, England: under contract, Cambridge University Press, 2025)
• Valentina Assenova and Aparajita Agarwal, “Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Africa”. In De Gruyter Handbook of Sociology of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, edited by Olav Sorenson and Patricia H. Thornton, (Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, 2025), pp. 289-312 Abstract

  Entrepreneurship and innovation in Africa-pivotal for the continent’s economic progress-present a contrast to Europe and North America with unique challenges and opportunities facing African startups and micro, small, and medium enterprises. This chapter offers a comprehensive examination of these differences and distinctive features of African startup and innovation ecosystems, highlighting insights from extant research and opportunities for empirical exploration and theoretical elaboration. It explores the relevance of these African experiences to similar emerging and developing economies and emphasizes the need for research that specifically addresses these unique dynamics, particularly in areas where existing theories and insights may not fully apply.

• Valentina Assenova and Raffi Amit (2025), Why are Some Nations More Entrepreneurial than Others? Investigating the Link Between Cultural Tightness-Looseness and Rates of New Firm Formation, Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, 19 (1), pp. 3-28. https://doi.org/10.1002/sej.1520 Abstract

  We evaluate the role of cultural tightness-looseness as an explanation for cross-cultural variation in new firm formation rates. Modeling cultural tightness-looseness as an antecedent for individual entrepreneurial dispositions and informal institutions, we examine its impact on the number of new limited-liability companies registered per 1,000 people and rate of new entrepreneurs in the working-age population. Our findings show that cultural tightness-looseness explains 56% of the variation in new firm formation rates in a sample of 156 nations, and 71% of the variation in the rate of new entrepreneurs in the 50 U.S. states, with greater cultural looseness corresponding to higher rates of entrepreneurship, on average. This effect is robust to various model specifications, measures, and controls for other cultural dimensions.

• Valentina Assenova, Yuheng Ding, Audra Wormald (Under Review), Beyond Technology Adoption: The Critical Role of Digital Technology Integration in SME Growth and Scalability. Abstract

  This study addresses a critical theoretical gap in understanding how digital technology integration drives the growth of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs). While existing literature often focuses on the adoption of digital technologies, it overlooks the distinction between technology adoption (extensive margin) and the depth of technology integration across business functions (intensive margin). Drawing on the resource-based and knowledge-based views of the firm, we explore how these dimensions of technology use influence SME growth and scalability. Using data on 14,313 firms across 30 countries from the Global State of Small Business Survey, our analysis reveals that SMEs are significantly less likely than larger firms to integrate digital technologies intensively, which is essential for realizing growth benefits. Furthermore, we demonstrate the primacy of organizational factors—such as firm size, age, and internal capabilities—over regional and country-specific factors in explaining variation in digital technology integration and firm performance. These findings challenge the conventional focus on technology adoption by emphasizing the role of organizational design and internal resource allocation in achieving competitive advantage through digital transformation. Our study contributes to the ongoing discourse on digital technology use, offering new insights for theory and practice in fostering SME growth and scalability.

• Valentina Assenova and Martin Gonzalez (Under Review), Leadership Capabilities Predict Startup Success in Accelerator Programs. Abstract

  This study examines the role of leadership capabilities in determining the post-acceleration performance of early-stage technology startups, which are important drivers of job creation and innovation in the economy. Analyzing data from 423 technology-focused startups that participated in Google for Startups accelerators, the research evaluates leadership effectiveness based on feedback from 7,371 co-founders, employees, investors, and advisors. The findings reveal that startups led by highly effective leaders, as assessed through a validated 33-item multi-rater feedback scale, achieve significantly higher revenue, innovation, funding, and operational longevity post-acceleration. Leadership behaviors such as maintaining composure under stress, understanding team aspirations, and fostering teamwork are identified as key predictors of leadership effectiveness ratings. Conversely, behaviors commonly promoted in the startup ecosystem, such as rapid innovation and frequent pivoting, are associated with lower leadership effectiveness ratings. These results underscore the importance of developing strong leadership within technology startups to enhance their potential for growth, job creation, and innovation, offering valuable insights for accelerators, investors, and founders aiming to foster long-term startup growth and scaling.

• Aparajita Agarwal and Valentina Assenova (2024), Mobile Money as a Stepping Stone to Financial Inclusion: How Digital Multisided Platforms Fill Institutional Voids, Organization Science, 35 (3), pp. 769-787. https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2022.16562 Abstract

  The literature on institutional voids examines how intermediaries, such as business groups and business incubators, address such voids in emerging economies. However, it remains unclear whether and how digital multisided platforms fill these voids given their unique features. This study focuses on mobile money platforms, which allow users without bank accounts or credit cards to perform financial transactions. We propose that these platforms fill institutional voids in three ways by (i) enabling data-based certification, (ii) providing unified access to distributed services, and (iii) scaling through network effects to reach previously excluded market participants. We argue that these novel mechanisms enable mobile money platforms to expand credit access to end users from formal financial institutions and thereby act as stepping stones to financial inclusion. Our analysis is based on a difference-in-difference design that leverages regulatory changes that allowed nonbanks to operate as mobile money operators and data from a representative random sample of 151,771 individuals in 78 countries. We supplement our quantitative analysis with rich, hand-collected qualitative evidence to illustrate the mechanisms underlying our findings.

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• Valentina Assenova and Raffi Amit (2024), Poised For Growth: Exploring the Relationship Between Accelerator Program Design and Startup Performance, Strategic Management Journal, 45 (6), pp. 1029-1060. https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.3581 Abstract

  Accelerator programs provide valuable market feedback and education to participants that may improve startup performance. However, it is unclear whether the average effect of accelerator participation on startup performance post acceleration is positive, and if so, how this effect varies with accelerator program design. We analyze data from 8,580 startups that made it past the initial selection stage at 408 accelerators in 176 countries between 2013 and 2019. We compare accelerated and non-accelerated startups and find a positive average effect of accelerator participation on startup performance post acceleration. Moreover, we find that this effect varies substantially with program design, and depends on venture stage, industry, and founder expertise. Our findings highlight the impact of program design on the benefits that startups derive from accelerator participation.

   

  Description

  The purpose of this study is to determine whether participation in startup accelerator programs generally leads to improved startup performance post acceleration and how the benefits of participation might vary with the design of these programs. We analyze data from 8,580 startups that applied to and passed the initial selection phase at 408 accelerators in 176 countries over multiple cohorts between 2013 and 2019. Our results indicate that on average, startups that participate in accelerators perform better than those that are also selected but not accelerated. Furthermore, we find that the benefits that startups gain from being accelerated vary with the design of the program. Our findings highlight the importance of accelerator program design in influencing the extent of improvement in startup performance post acceleration.

• Valentina Assenova and Sophie Bacq (Under Review), Scaling for Good: The Role of Social Impact Accelerators in Scaling Social Enterprises. Abstract

  The rise of social impact accelerators (SIAs), such as climate and sustainability accelerators, has prompted inquiries about their value to social enterprises, which tackle societal problems such as climate change or systemic poverty. This study evaluates the role of SIAs in scaling the impact and operations of these enterprises using a large-scale database of 18,680 applicants to 404 accelerator programs. We find that social enterprises accelerated through SIAs exhibit enhanced impact scaling compared to those accelerated through traditional commercial programs; surprisingly, we also find that enterprises accelerated through SIAs also experience greater operational scaling, challenging conventional understanding about the tradeoffs between impact and operational growth. These findings highlight the nuanced ways that SIAs support venture scaling alongside social value creation.

• Valentina Assenova and Ethan J. Poskanzer (Under Review), The Long-Term Impact of Technology Entrepreneurship Programming on Technology Venture Formation and Tech-Sector Employment. Abstract

  We investigate how technology entrepreneurship programming impacts participants’ long-term career outcomes in low-income countries. We argue that such programming will increase technology entrepreneurship activity and have “spillover” effects in the form of facilitating mobility into higher-skilled technology employment. These effects are not observed when only examining enterprise performance, which is the standard way of evaluating program effectiveness. We also pose two paths through which pre-entry knowledge and experience may amplify or diminish these effects. Greater pre-entry knowledge and experience may increase participants’ absorptive capacity to learn and deploy new resources or may substitute for programming, attenuating any resultant career impacts. We evaluate these ideas in the context of a Pan-African technology entrepreneurship program in Accra, Ghana run by an NGO. We find that technology entrepreneurship programming is associated with higher rates of technology venture formation over the short-term. We also find career impacts beyond entrepreneurship. Programming is associated with a greater likelihood of working in technology among those who do not become entrepreneurs, which does not diminish over time, leading to a long-term increase in participation in the technology sector. Career changes after programming are greater among participants with less pre-entry knowledge and experience.

• All Research from Valentina A. Assenova »

Past Courses

• MGMT2120 - Social Entrepreneurship

  This is a course on creating a business to attack a social problem and thereby accomplish both social impact and financial sustainability. For this course, social entrepreneurship is defined as entrepreneurship used to profitably confront social problems. This definition therefore views social entrepreneurship as a distinct alternative to public sector initiatives. The basic thesis is that many social problems, if looked at through an entrepreneurial lens, create opportunity for someone to launch a venture that generates profits by alleviating that social problem. This sets in motion a virtuous cycle - the entrepreneur is incented to generate more profits and in so doing, the more the profits made, the more the problem is alleviated. Even if it is not possible to eventually create a profit-making enterprise, the process of striving to do so can lead to a resource-lean not-for-profit entity. Creating a profitable social entrepreneurship venture is by no means a simple challenge.

• MGMT2300 - Entrepreneurship

  How do you take a good idea and turn it into a successful venture? Whether you plan to become a founder, investor, mentor, partner, or early employee of a startup company, this course will take you through the entire journey of new venture creation and development. MGMT 230 is a project-based survey course designed to provide an overview of the entrepreneurial process and give you practical hands-on experience with new venture development. You and a team will have the chance to ideate, test, and develop a pitch for an early-stage startup by incorporating material from class lectures, simulations, labs, and class discussions. By the end of the course, you will have a better understanding of what it takes to create a successful startup, as well as proven techniques for identifying and testing new market opportunities, acquiring resources, bringing new products and services to market, scaling, and exiting new ventures.

• MGMT8120 - Social Entrepreneurship

  This is a course on creating a business to attack a social problem and thereby accomplish both social impact and financial sustainability. For this course, social entrepreneurship is defined as entrepreneurship used to profitably confront social problems. This definition therefore views social entrepreneurship as a distinct alternative to public sector initiatives. The basic thesis is that many social problems, if looked at through an entrepreneurial lens, create opportunity for someone to launch a venture that generates profits by alleviating that social problem. This sets in motion a virtuous cycle - the entrepreneur is incented to generate more profits and in so doing, the more the profits made, the more the problem is alleviated. Even if it is not possible to eventually create a profit-making enterprise, the process of striving to do so can lead to a resource-lean not-for-profit entity. Creating a profitable social entrepreneurship venture is by no means a simple challenge. Cross-listed with MGMT 212.

• MGMT9380 - Seminar in Social Entrep

  This half-semester course examines how social enterprise organizations emerge, attract resources, and affect society. The course will bridge micro and macro theoretical perspectives to provide insight into the unique challenges faced by social enterprises, while also showing how the study of such organizations can help to advance mainstream entrepreneurship research. Individual sessions will focus on defining social entrepreneurship, the tensions and tradeoffs that emerge in organizations that pursue social and financial goals, impact investing and other sources of finance, and the role of incubators/accelerators in supporting the development of these organizations. This is a seminar-based course with active discussion and analysis.

• 2025/2027 Elected Representative-at-Large, Entrepreneurship and Strategy Interest Group, Strategic Management Society, 2024
• 2024/2025 INTERA Fellow - Interdisciplinary Network of Technology and Entrepreneurship Research in African Societies, 2024
• 2024 Outstanding Reviewer Award, Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, 2024
• 2024 Outstanding Reviewer Award, Strategic Management Division, Academy of Management Annual Meeting, 2024
• 2024 CSS Fellow, The Summer Institutes of Computational Social Science (SICSS), 2024
• 2024/2026 Elected Representative-at-Large, Competitive Strategy Interest Group, Strategic Management Society, 2024
• 2023/2025 Elected Representative-at-Large, Research Methods Community, Strategic Management Society, 2023
• 2023/Present Editorial Review Board, Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, 2023
• 2022 Best Paper Award, Entrepreneurship Division, Academy of Management, 2022
• 2021 Carolyn B. Dexter All-Academy Best International Paper Award Nominee, Entrepreneurship Division, Academy of Management, 2021
• 2019 William H. Newman All-Academy Best Dissertation Award Nominee, Entrepreneurship Division, Academy of Management, 2019
• 2017/Present Editorial Review Board, California Management Review, 2017
• 2017 Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS) Summer Institute on Organizations and their Effectiveness, Stanford University, 2017
• 2015 Finalist, Carolyn Dexter Award (All-Academy Best International Paper), Academy of Management, 2015
• 2015 Best International Paper Award, Organization and Management Theory Division, Academy of Management, 2015
• 2012 First Class Honors, University of Cambridge, 2012
• 2012 Director’s Award, University of Cambridge, 2012
• 2004/2008 Robert & Rosalie Cort Scholar, University of Pennsylvania, 2008
• 2006/2007 Wharton Research Scholar, University of Pennsylvania, 2007
• 2005/2006 Andrew W. Mellon Fellow, University of Pennsylvania, 2006

• New study explores how tightness and looseness shape global entrepreneurship, American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) - 01/14/2025
• Exploring how cultural tightness and looseness shape global entrepreneurship, Phys.org - 01/14/2025
• How Cultural Flexibility Fuels Entrepreneurship, Strategic Management Society - 01/14/2025
• Innovative study highlights the transformative impact of accelerator programs on startups worldwide, American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) - 12/16/2024
• Study highlights the transformative impact of accelerator programs on startups worldwide, Phys.org - 12/16/2024
• Want Your Startup To Grow? Consider The Design Of Your Accelerator Program, Strategic Management Society - 12/16/2024 Description

  Startup accelerators are now essential to entrepreneurial ecosystems, providing mentorship, resources, and networks to fast-track early-stage ventures. But does accelerator participation always improve a startup’s performance? And how much does program design matter?  

  Our recent study, published in the Strategic Management Journal, explores these questions, analyzing data from 8,580 startups in 408 accelerators across 176 countries. The findings reveal that while accelerators generally boost startup success, the specific design of these programs plays a critical role.

• 2024 Annual Report for the SEC’s Office of the Advocate for Small Business Capital Formation, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Office of the Advocate for Small Business Capital Formation - 12/13/2024
• Is green growth possible?, Norwegian SciTech News - 12/21/2021 Description

  Increases in economic growth contribute to one-for-one increases in carbon emissions. Energy system decarbonization and economic productivity gains are the most effective carbon emissions mitigation mechanisms for sustainable economic development.

• CO2 reduction and economic growth: Can they go hand-in-hand?, Phys.org - 10/28/2021
• Why do Rates of Entrepreneurship Vary?, Marginal Revolution - 09/22/2019
• The Uneven Geography of Crowdfunding Success, The Mistra Centre for Sustainable Markets, Stockholm School of Economics - 05/29/2019
• Hidden Entrepreneurs: What Crowdfunding Reveals about Startups in Metro America, The Brookings Institution - 09/18/2018
• How Crowdfunding Helps Entrepreneurs Beyond Silicon Valley, Value Walk - 02/01/2018
• For Entrepreneurs a Tough Moment: The Pivot, The New York Times - 12/06/2017
• How Will The Rise of Crowdfunding Reshape How We Give To Charity?, Fast Company - 03/03/2017
• Crowdfunding Expands Innovation Financing to Underserved Regions, National Science Foundation - 01/13/2017

Knowledge @ Wharton

• Navigating Holiday Retail Trends Amid Economic Uncertainty, Knowledge @ Wharton - 11/21/2025
• Navigating Marketing Shifts Amid AI, Inflation, and Cultural Change, Knowledge @ Wharton - 11/20/2025
• How California’s New AI Law Seeks to Safeguard Children, Knowledge @ Wharton - 11/19/2025
• How Evolving Data Trends Are Redefining Multi-Sport Performance, Knowledge @ Wharton - 11/19/2025
• Fighting False Information Online | Eric Clemons, Knowledge @ Wharton - 11/18/2025
• How Are Companies Using Gen AI in 2025?, Knowledge @ Wharton - 11/17/2025
• Look Them in the Eye: Strengthen Teams and Trust, Knowledge @ Wharton - 11/17/2025
• Can Your Face Predict Your Salary? Using AI Personality Assessments in Hiring, Knowledge @ Wharton - 11/17/2025
• The Hidden Link Between Talent Shortages and Rising M&A Activity, Knowledge @ Wharton - 11/14/2025
• How Analytics Are Redefining Playoff Predictions Across College and Pro Sports, Knowledge @ Wharton - 11/12/2025