Abstract
Entrepreneurial support organisations, such as accelerators, are proliferating to support early-stage ventures, especially social ventures in order to disseminate positive impacts for society. Yet, the mechanisms underpinning how co-participation in an accelerator can support ventures to earn a profit for their survival and growth remain unknown. To discover such mechanisms, this study uses a Qualitative Comparative Analysis on a sample of 243 ventures from 19 accelerator programs. Our findings show that the combination of knowledge spillovers and internal resources varies among profitable social ventures. With fewer internal resources, profitable ventures led by women leverage knowledge spillovers from similar ventures in the same cohort. More resourceful ventures profit from a mix of similar and distant knowledge spillovers to prevent knowledge leakage. This research makes two key contributions to the existing literature of accelerator and gender differences. First, it provides first steps to elucidate multiple equally effective resource configurations of internal resources (experience, finance and intellectual capital) and external resources within an accelerator (knowledge spillovers) that lead to profitability. Second, it moves beyond a mere comparison between male versus female, to articulate the interdependencies between gender and resources in contributing to the profitability outcome of early-stage for-profit social ventures. This study also entails important practical implications for entrepreneurs, accelerator managers and policy-makers.