Designing an accelerator model for technological businesses in communication services companies: A case study of Iran Telecommunication Company)

A review of the research backgrounds in the field of business accelerators shows that many studies have considered the effects of this process on investment, ecosystems, entrepreneurship and innovation in general. However, none of these studies focus on specific industries such as telecommunications. Also, there has been no centralized information and communication technology, so there is a research gap. It was found that there is no model to express the accelerating components of technology businesses in this field. Due to the role of advanced technology in the telecommunications industry, the increasing development in the field of silent technologies and the transfer of advanced technologies in the industry, the need for accelerators of innovation in the industry is very urgent. They need to be able to come up with innovative ideas regarding feasibility studies, testing, funding and marketing after commercialization; Therefore, it is absolutely necessary to fill the gap between the presence of a scientific model in a technological accelerator in Iranian communication services companies, most of whose technology is imported from China, Korea, etc. This is the innovative aspect of this research for the first time in Iran and in the telecommunications industry. One of the main reasons for the failure of accelerators is the lack of experience and competency of some entrepreneurs, which would promote different learning achievements and skills in a variety of fields. Therefore, the main purpose of this study is to design an accelerator model of technological businesses in the field of communication service companies.

The present research is applied in terms of purpose and qualitative in terms of data collection. Due to the nature of the research problem, the researcher has solved it with an interpretive paradigm through a qualitative approach and inductive logic. So, the question to answer is how the accelerator model of technology businesses is formed in communication service companies.In the first part of this research, the texts related to the concepts of accelerator and technological businesses have been extracted from library sources, and the criteria are set with regard to the keywords of accelerator, technological business and their derivatives. In the second part of the study, interviews were conducted with 19 managers of Iran's telecommunications technology in the summer of 2020. The statistical population of the study included the experts from the academic sector who had at least two articles in the field of technology business and research projects in this field. In the executive sector, there were people with a university degree and at least four years of work in the field of technological business in the field of telecommunications technology. The sampling was performed purposefully and continued until the researcher reached theoretical saturation. In this study, the interviews were semi-structured and the 5w1h technique was used to answer some questions such as how, why, what, where, who and when. The codes were extracted for 19 interviews that became saturated, and no new code was added to the previous codes during further interviews. This number of samples was enough for the interview section. In order to analyze the data, encoding was performed using the Atlas T software version 8. In this research, three methods were used to realize the validity of the research tool, including using two tools for writing questions, correcting the questions by experts, and finally reviewing the questions by conducting two preliminary interviews. This was done up to sample 19. The reliability coefficient based on the agreement between the two coders was 66%. The strategy of the present study was to better solve the problem of the data theory of the Strauss and Corbin Foundation, in which the researcher follows a process theory and describes the actions and interactions that occur over time.

In the present study, the researcher reached theoretical saturation after nineteen interviews. The interviews were briefly conducted with the question of "designing an accelerator model of technology businesses in communication service companies" (open interview). Also, two stages of open and central coding were used. The interview questions were ‘What are the most important infrastructures for creating accelerators in the field of ICT?’, ‘What factors will accelerate the commercialization of ICT startup products in accelerators?’, ‘What will be the consequences of accelerating the creation of technology businesses in the field of ICT?’, and ‘What facilitators are involved in existing startups in the ICT accelerator?’The research led to the identification of 11 categories and 52 selected codes. The strategic factors included organizational factors and technology development and transfer, causal factors including financing and opportunity recognition, intervening factors including entrepreneurship component, and contextual factors including managerial components, which are environmental, cultural and economic. Finally, the consequences include technological entrepreneurship and coaching.

The results show that the current situation in the country and its role in technology businesses to create employment and generate new opportunities in the field of economic activities are appropriate. By recognizing the accelerating areas of technology businesses in communication services, companies can create new opportunities for entrepreneurs. It can cause the economic and social progress of the society.