Accelerator sustainability in Tunisia:The importance of a sustainable accelerator business model

Since the creation of the first, YCombinator, in 2005, accelerators are becoming more popular and increasingly playing an important role as a supporting vehicle in the entrepreneurial ecosystems. Yet, some accelerators though successful in building high potential new enterprises, are not successful as businesses in their own right and fail. Their business models are not financially sustainable and accelerators themselves are not self-sustainable. Therefore, this research examines the financial growth of accelerators in Tunisia, as well as the issues challenges and impediments in translating this initial success into sustainable support by having financial sustainability. It will be based on analysis and identification of the main constraints, then proposing initiatives as to how accelerators could overcome financial business model challenges. Therefore, a qualitative study has been conducted using semi-structured interviews with five accelerator managers. The findings from this research develop a more detailed and better understanding of the accelerator business model of financial sustainability through examining the sustainability strategy of each institution to establish a pattern.