Business accelerators are key actors in the entrepreneurial ecosystem, positively influencing the startups they support. Still, academic research on the factors that contribute to an accelerator’s success is limited. Recognising their fundamental role in fostering innovation across diverse entrepreneurial ecosystems, this article focuses on understanding the factors affecting their success ratio across the European Union (EU), adopting a comparative approach between emerging and advanced economies. In doing so, it investigates factors like their strategies and structure, their innovation ranking and their sectoral focus. Results from 41 accelerators across 19 European countries suggest that the accelerators adopt different strategies for startup engagement with investors and that the innovation ranking of their country affects the standing of the accelerator in the ecosystem. They vary in their funding strategies, but the majority address broad sectoral spectrums. There is divergence in their investment strategies between developing and advanced European economies, as accelerators from the former still focus on rather technologically mature sectors, while accelerators from the latter have shifted their focus to emerging sectors.
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