Advantages of foreignness and accelerator selection: A study of foreign-born entrepreneurs

Foreign-born entrepreneurs are crucial for new ventures and regional growth. A key driver of their success is selection into business accelerator programs. We theorize that foreign-born founders with local residency and work experience are more likely to be selected by these programs. However, the institutional distance between an entrepreneur's host and the birth country reduces their likelihood of selection, whereas the entrepreneurial development of the host country increases it. We also examine the conditional effect of market learning capability. Evidence from 611 ventures in OECD countries supports our hypotheses, underlining the complex impact of foreignness on accelerator selection.