Designing a Mentoring Model for the Development of Food Industry Startups

Startups are usually built around innovative ideas, and mentors serve as watchdogs and entrepreneurs in the creation and growth of startups. The purpose of this research was to design a mentoring model for the development of startups in food industry. The research method was mixed employing sequential-exploratory design, grand-theoretical method and applied-developmental goal. Through purposeful theoretical sampling, in the qualitative section, 15 academic experts in the field of entrepreneurship management and food industry were selected. In the quantitative section, using stratified random sampling, 384 entrepreneurs, mentors and students active in food industry startups were recruited who answered a researcher-made questionnaire. The qualitative analysis was performed with five rounds of interviews to reach saturation and theoretical consensus for open, axial and selective coding of mentoring model categories in food industry startups, the quantitative analysis of which was performed with Smart pls (2) statistical software. The paradigm pattern of research was established in 4 axes, 29 categories, 193 items and 6 constructs including: causal conditions, central phenomena, strategies, contextual conditions, intervening conditions and consequences. The relationship between causal condition structures and central phenomenon, central phenomenon and strategies, contextual conditions and strategies, intervening conditions and strategies and strategies and consequencies of mentoring development was found to be positive and significant (T ≤ 2.58), and research model fit was assessed as strong (GOF = 0.682). Therefore, it can be concluded that the managers and policymakers of the country's food industry can benefit from the consequences of mentoring development in the startups of the country's food industry by implementing the antecedents of the research model and implementing its strategies.