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1
Sakharna, V. "Startup-Incubators vs Business-Accelerators." Thesis, Київський національний університет технологій та дизайну, 2017. https://er.knutd.edu.ua/handle/123456789/8222.
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Wendorff, Todd Louis. "Design Interjection for Business Incubators." Kent State University / OhioLINK, 2014. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1395918298.
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Mattushek, Marcia. "Entrepreneurial learning in business incubators and accelerators." Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 2022. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/236252/1/Marcia%2BMattushek%2BThesis.pdf.
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Entrepreneurial Learning in Business Incubators and Accelerators (BIAs) This thesis aims to understand the experiences of entrepreneurs embarking on business incubator and accelerator (BIA) programs and why learning and personal growth seem irregular outcomes. Using a Critical Realist inspired methodology and mixed methods, the contingent mechanisms and conditions that enable or disengage entrepreneurial learning for entrepreneur attendees of BIAs are explored. A model of trust-contingent learning within BIAs is presented, including the conditions – such as predatory behaviours – whereby trust may be lost and learning undermined.
4
Roth, Steffen, and Tino Vordank. "Generative Incubators." Universitätsbibliothek Chemnitz, 2008. http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bsz:ch1-200800655.
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Starting the own business is sometimes a dream sometimes a nightmare but undoubtedly from a
macro-economic perspective it is considered to be a promising concept to secure long-term economic
growth and society’s welfare, at least in Germany. Strong efforts were made to support
start ups and potential entrepreneurs to run their own business. A plethora of programs were
launched which were supposed to facilitate the start up process – but reality is disenchanting: The
published data in the 2004 GEM indicate that the idea of an entrepreneurial society in Germany is
still far beyond its realization. Germany ranks 17th out of 31 GEM states in terms of “nascent entrepreneurs”
and only 22nd regarding the “young entrepreneurs”. Compared to other GEM countries
the German adults are considered to be more pessimistic in terms of entrepreneurial issues:
The chances of establishing a successful business are evaluated lower than the years before. On
the other hand the context factors which are considered to influence the start up opportunities
especially in terms of governmental support and physical infrastructure were evaluated to be one
of the best. Especially concerning the latter aspect strong efforts have been made to support
entrepreneurs. In this context, and maybe because of
- A “… post-1970s fascination with ‘high-tech’ regions worldwide”
(Cooke/Leydesdorff 2006: 9),
- A continuous liberalization of the world market and its impact on national production
systems (which is well discussed in the context of the conversion of cooperatives), or
- The dawn of the concept of national innovations systems (e.g. Lundvall 1988;
Cozzens et al. 1990),
For more than two decades, one promising concept of sustaining entrepreneurs was seen in
the idea of incubators1 which mainly offer support in terms of infrastructure and funding
opportunities.
Meantime, we observe that questions emerge of how effective and efficient incubators work
as one major instrument of macroentrepreneurial (Van de Veen 1995, Chiles/Meyer 2001)
activities in order to facilitate start ups and to support the first steps of a new business from its
start to its growth.
The value of the incubator model as an effective means of technology and knowledge transfer
especially from universities is continually discussed and questioned (Cunningham 1999). For
example, a study run by Allen and Kahman (1985) concluded that incubators are tools for
developing enterprises which create a positive environment for small businesses to succeed.
Indeed, lots of studies brought up that incubators are an efficient and effective way to sustain
spin-out processes and to contribute to regional development and prosperity. However, on the
other hand some shortcomings are obvious: Finer and Holberton (2000) take into question the
incubator model because it takes the initiative away from the start-up team.
The paper refers to these observations. We assume by means of some international empirical
studies that the functions of incubators are enhanced as a result of a (evolutional) learning
process. On this basis we derive hypothesis about the dealing with the upcoming challenges
and provide further research questions in an explorative way. Paragraph 2 introduces a three
phased model of business incubators and classifies existing incubators. It will be obvious, that
there is an increasing amount of functions that are allocated by incubators. Within paragraph 3
we examine recent developments from a macroeconomic perspective and contrast to this the
evolution of incubators. Paragraph 4 presents two types of incubators that take these
1 In the context of this paper we primarly refer to non-profit incubators.
contradictions into account and offers an alternative coping. Summarizing, we give an outlook
on further research questions which will substantiate the evolutionary perspective on
incubators.
5
Insoll, Luke, and Jonne Mäkikyrö. "Creativity in Business Incubators : A Qualitative Study of the Influencers of Startup Employee Creativity in Incubators." Thesis, Umeå universitet, Företagsekonomi, 2018. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-149663.
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Creativity is a phenomenon of human behaviour whereby new and useful things are produced. The products of creativity can be tangible, such as a painting or item of clothing, or they can be intangible, such as an idea or theory. Psychologists recognize that creativity does not exist in a vacuum; instead it is the result of the complex interaction of numerous factors. These factors are both intrinsic and extrinsic. Intrinsic factors relate to inherent aspects of the individual, such as cognitive capability, motivation, and emotional state. Extrinsic factors include environmental influences, such noise, distraction, and social interaction. Certain extrinsic factors also influence intrinsic factors; for example, social interaction, which is extrinsic, can improve mood, which is intrinsic. Organisational psychologists and business researchers have in recent years explored the ways in which the creativity of an individual in a workplace setting is influenced by their environment. The authors of this study have continued that line of research, by performing a qualitative exploratory study into how the business incubator environment influences the creativity of startup employees. Business incubators, organisations that provide office space and development resources to early-stage firms, typically represent themselves as “creative environments” in which creativity can thrive. The researchers conducted in-depth interviews with employees of four different startup companies in two different incubators in Northern Sweden, in order to gauge their experiences of how the incubator environment affected their self-perceived creativity. This study yielded interesting results that to a large degree corroborated extant research, while also raising exciting question for future research. The authors, combining the findings of their study with theories identified in a comprehensive literature review of creativity research, present a conceptual model of creativity in incubators. The model categorises the observed environmental influences of creativity into higher-order and lower-order themes, and discusses the ways in which they affect not just creativity but also each other. The higher order themes are pressure and challenge, affect, and knowledge. The lower order themes are distractions, social interaction, and positive interaction as a reward for creative behaviour. Approach to ideas operates as a mediating theme that influences the relationship between social interaction and knowledge. Business incubators may benefit from the findings and conclusions of this study, as they provide suggestions on how the incubator environment may be modified to better serve the creative needs of their tenants. The relevance of these findings is not limited, however, solely to incubators. Many organisations and institutions recognize the value of creativity, and may be interested to learn of the ways in which the environment interacts with this complex yet crucial phenomenon. Companies, innovators, entrepreneurs, and universities are but a sample of those who might gain from the new perspectives on creativity that this thesis presents.
6
Meckel, PingPing. "The role of business incubators in developing entrepreneurship." Thesis, Manchester Metropolitan University, 2014. http://e-space.mmu.ac.uk/595501/.
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Extant literature in business incubation has been criticised for focusing on quantitative measures of success while failing to offer a comprehensive, process-focused understanding of the phenomenon. This study addresses that gap by linking established theoretical frameworks from both entrepreneurship and learning to theorise the business incubation process and to offer a new conceptual framework that captures the process of opportunity identification and development within a business incubator. This contributes to knowledge by offering a fresh perspective on how the entrepreneurial process might be studied within a business incubator environment. The study draws on qualitative data and documentary evidence from a range of stakeholders associated with a university Business Incubation Centre (BIC), including in-depth interviews with twenty incubatees. Through a series of narratives detailing the lived experience of incubatees the study identifies six distinctive pathways through the incubation process, which allow the process to be conceptualised as a process of opportunity identification and development. The process of opportunity development within the business incubator is explored further using experiential and social learning theories as heuristic tools. This leads to a more nuanced conceptualisation of business incubation as a learning process that begins with prior knowledge at the opportunity identification phase, progresses through the acquisition of new skills and knowledge necessary to develop an opportunity and concludes with a transformation phase where new knowledge (business ideas and opportunities) is acted upon. Alongside this, the study finds that the incubation process can transform identities as individuals undertake a journey to ‘become an entrepreneur’. The findings indicate that knowledge alone may not fully explain the entrepreneurial process. It is the dynamics of learning that offers a greater understanding of how information, experience, skills and identity can be transformed into new knowledge, which in turn leads to opportunity identification and development. This suggests that although a high stock of knowledge may be important prior to entering a business incubator, it is learning that is crucial to the opportunity development process, where new knowledge is created by combining prior knowledge with new information and experience. Crucial to this process is a supportive learning community where incubatees receive relevant information in an atmosphere of trust. The study has a number of implications for incubator managers. Firstly attention and scarce resources should be focused on providing relevant information and encouraging an atmosphere of learning and mutual support. Secondly managers should adopt a less ‘managerial’ approach and be prepared to act as mentors to support and encourage incubatees. Thirdly recruitment practices should be revised to include a more holistic appreciation of potential incubatees contribution to the learning community as well as an assessment of their business plans. For policy makers the study suggests that a successful business incubator does not necessarily require a large financial investment in state-of-the-art premises and technology. Appropriate management training together with carefully selected incubatees can create an effective learning community where opportunities are developed and transformed into enterprises and individuals into entrepreneurs.
7
Clark, W. Andrew, Andrew J. Czuchry, and James A. Hales. "University Managed Technology Business Incubators: Asset or Liability?" Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2004. https://dc.etsu.edu/etsu-works/2525.
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University managed technology-based business incubators (UMTIs) have become increasingly popular. Some universities are forming private corporations and are encouraging professors/researchers to commercialize intellectual property (IP) based upon research conducted in their laboratories. The UMTI provides the infrastructure, access to high-tech laboratories, libraries, students and faculty, and a coalition of like-minded entrepreneurs. Universities face uncertainties when establishing UMTIs and need to minimize risk while maximizing benefits. This paper discusses results of a benchmarking study of eleven technology incubators and their risk mitigation policies. Experience with technology transfer and use of the UMTI as a living laboratory for students is presented.
8
Tang, M., A. Baskaran, and J. Pancholi. "Technology Business Incubators in China and in India: A comparative analysis." Tshwane University of Technology, 2010. http://encore.tut.ac.za/iii/cpro/DigitalItemViewPage.external?sp=1001629.
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Abstract
This is the first part of our three part comparative study of Technology Business Incubators (TBIs) in China and India. For this we employ the integrative framework developed by Mian (1997) and its adaptation to analyzing the performance of TBI, which uses three sets of variables for analysis: management and operational policies, services, and performance outcomes of TBI. The determinants we introduce into Mians‟s model highlight the financial, networking and organizational aspects of the incubation system.
We present an overview comparison of TBIs in China and India which provides an overall understanding of TBI environment in these two emerging economies. We mainly focus on: objectives, structure and governance of incubators, selection of tenants/incubatees, funding for incubators and tenants, services provided by incubators, performance and outcomes. By analyzing the contexts for their emergence in both countries, we identify similarities and differences between the two systems and explore the reasons for performance differences. This paper prepares the ground for the next stages of the research which involves national surveys of TBIs and tenants to explore the strength and weaknesses of the TBIs in these two countries and compare the success or failures of incubatees/ tenants of incubators in China and India which will help to identify policy learning for both countries in particular and also for other developing countries in general.
The contribution of our paper is twofold: first, the adaptation of the integrative framework developed by Mian (1997) and the second, the comparative study of two major emerging economies which fills an important gap in the TBI literature.
9
Lish, Alan David. "Antecedents of business incubator effectiveness: an exploratory study." NSUWorks, 2012. http://nsuworks.nova.edu/hsbe_etd/64.
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The purpose of this study is to develop a conceptual model based which examines the influence of various antecedents of the business incubation process. The conceptualized model will be tested empirically using data collected from North American business incubators.
The data used are from the National Business Incubator Association's State of the Industry survey. The Partial Least Squares method of analysis is used to explore the identified antecedents, and is used to test validate the model.
While a number of resources were identified as components of the incubation process and are considered antecedents of incubator effectiveness (e.g., social networking, access to funding, training, manager/staff intervention), the findings indicate the network of professional services (e.g., legal, marketing, MIS advice) assembled in and around the incubator have the most significant impact on incubator effectiveness. Other resources, such as training, links and management resources, can have an impact, but only insofar as they relate to the professional services resources. The application and screening process were confirmed as essential to find clients that have the proper "fit" within an incubator. The findings indicate that the physical and age characteristics of an incubator are not factors in effectiveness, nor is the networking activities among incubator clients, lending support to a burgeoning class of virtual incubators, accelerators and innovation centers.
The results support resource-advantage theory as a foundation theory in the incubation process, and give researchers a basis for future work in this area. The study helps fill gaps in academic research on incubators, and confirms previously theorized work on the process of incubation.
In practice, incubator managers and stakeholders can use these results to assemble the particular resources they need for their type of incubator, and more effectively select potential clients based on those resources. This should allow a smoother, more even flow through the incubator, a better use of scarce and valuable resources, and likely higher graduation rates.
This study is the first empirical analysis of the incubation process to arrive at a statistically-validated model of business incubation.
10
MELLO, RUTH ESPINOLA SORIANO DE. "UNIVERSITY INCUBATORS OF SOCIAL BUSINESS: RIGINS, DIFFERENCES AND CHALLENGES." PONTIFÍCIA UNIVERSIDADE CATÓLICA DO RIO DE JANEIRO, 2018. http://www.maxwell.vrac.puc-rio.br/Busca_etds.php?strSecao=resultado&nrSeq=36213@1.
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PONTIFÍCIA UNIVERSIDADE CATÓLICA DO RIO DE JANEIROO Terceiro Setor no Brasil tem se reconfigurado de modo a se aproximar dos negócios de impacto social e de suas respectivas instituições de apoio. Essas organizações híbridas visam enfrentar problemas socioambientais a partir de modelos de negócios regidos sob a égide de mecanismos de mercado. Diferem de organizações não governamentais por não dependerem de recursos de filantropia ou doações; não se enquadram como empresas tradicionais por terem como medida principal de sucesso o impacto social de suas ações, e não o lucro; se distanciam das iniciativas de responsabilidade social empresarial pelo fato de que suas intervenções não são guiadas pela busca de mitigação de uma externalidade negativa ou de ações desassociadas do core business empresarial. A tese analisa as incubadoras universitárias que acolhem os negócios de impacto social. Elas são instituições burocráticas com natureza e interconexões com relevante complexidade e que podem conformar categorias tipológicas orientadas pela natureza de suas mantenedoras - privadas, públicas e comunitárias. A pesquisa é comparativa e multicasos cujo percurso metodológico agrega insumos históricos, teórico-conceituais, análise institucional e pesquisa de campo aplicada junto a gestores de incubadoras: oito inquiridos (representando quatro incubadoras) via interlocução direta e outros 26 por interlocução indireta com aplicação de formulário eletrônico à distância (25 incubadoras). Às de mantenedoras comunitárias demostraram melhor performance na execução de processos operacionais, gerenciais e estratégicos (manutenção e investimento de infraestrutura; despesas correntes, elaboração de documentos jurídicos, contratação de pessoal; mudança de posicionamento estratégico), dentre outros atributos associados a parâmetros internacionais de desempenho de incubadoras empresariais, cultura empreendedora universitária, e flexibilidade na elaboração de programas de incubação a novos nichos de mercado (inclusive negócios de impacto social).
Brazilian Third Sector has been reconfigured to approach the social businesses and their respective support institutions. Social entreprises are hybrid organizations that seek to address socio-environmental problems based on business models governed by market mechanisms. They differ from non-governmental organizations because they do not rely on philanthropic resources or donations; they do not fit as traditional companies because they have as main success measure the social impact of their actions, not only profit; they distance themselves from corporate social responsibility initiatives because of the fact that their positive results do not come from mitigating a negative externality or from actions that are core business disassociated. The thesis analyzes the university business incubators that host such startups social businesses. They are bureaucratic institutions with complex nature and interconnections, that can conform typological modalities guided by the nature of their maintainers - private, public and community. The research is comparative and multicases with a methodological route that aggregates historical, theoretical-conceptual inputs, institutional analysis and research with incubator managers: eight respondents (representing four incubators) as direct interlocutors and 26 others as indirect interlocutors that were reached by electronic form application at a distance (representing 25 incubators). The university business incubators with community maintainers demonstrated a better performance in the execution of operational, managerial and strategic processes (maintenance and investment of infrastructure; current expenses, preparation of legal documents, hiring of personnel; change of strategic positioning), among other attributes associated with international incubators performance parameters, entrepreneurial culture, flexibility of incubation of new market niches (including social entreprises).
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Czuchry, Andrew, and W. Andrew Clark. "Technology Based Business Incubators: Living Laboratories For Entrepreneurial Students." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2004. https://dc.etsu.edu/etsu-works/2502.
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Those teaching entrepreneurship to engineering and technology students are faced with the challenge of converting theory into learning opportunities that provide real-world-practical experience. Although the literature stresses the need for experiential learning through group and field projects and case studies, the potential of capitalizing on technology-based business incubators as living laboratories has not been fully utilized. The purpose of this paper is to suggest a conceptual framework for closing this gap. This framework is based upon our experience working with graduate student teams on projects with the Oak Ridge National Laboratories Center for Entrepreneurial Growth and East Tennessee State University’s (ETSU’s) Innovation Laboratory. Both are high-technology business incubators striving to commercialize technology developed in university or government laboratories. High-technology business incubators present an excellent experiential learning opportunity for engineering and technology students faced with the challenge of translating theory to practice. Our experience, gained through personal observation and via a benchmarking study conducted in 2002, indicates that incubators routinely utilize MBA students as at-large business counselors for the fledgling technology based businesses. In addition, businesses founded by university professors tend to attract recently matriculated technology graduate students, many of which served as advisees of the founding professor, as new hires in these startup ventures. However, the use of technology business incubators as training ground for engineering and technology students seeking entrepreneurial business opportunities has not been fully exploited. New technology business ventures generally have strong research experience and intellectual property but little marketing and management experience. These businesses, many of which are cutting-edge technology, present the entrepreneurial student with “real world vision” in seeing hurdles these new technology ventures must face and overcome. We have found that diverse student teams comprised of graduate students majoring in technology, business, digital media and medicine offer unique solutions to problems and insight into opportunities for technology businesses. This paper presents a practical step-by-step conceptual framework for using technology-based business incubators as living laboratories for students studying entrepreneurial leadership. Lessons learned are underscored to suggest mitigation practices to avoid potential problems such as patenting issues, disclosure of confidential information, and liability.
12
Mbewana, Patience Nokulunga. "The key success factors for business incubation in South Africa the Godisa case study /." Pretoria : [s.n.], 2005. http://upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/available/etd-04112007-180110.
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Kasase, William K. "Business incubators in Zambia: A study of the impact on small business enterprises." Master's thesis, University of Cape Town, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/25098.
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This study tested the impact of Business Incubators (BI) in stimulating the growth of small to medium businesses in a Southern African country, Zambia. The study explores the existence, awareness, beliefs and experience in a sub Saharan context, identifying the key impact factors. The study was aimed at understanding whether the operation of business incubators would result in stimulating small to medium business enterprises the same way it does in the west. To achieve this, the study reviewed the existing literature on the subject matter and analysed the collected data using a questionnaire was analysed. The collected data was analysed using SSPS. The results of the analysis revealed that 64% of the respondents had heard about Business Incubators. This was done through a scientific research by a well selected set of interview questionnaires, from a sample size of 300 small to medium businesses. Only 19% confirmed receiving business assistance from a support initiative. 95% of the total respondents confirmed that a business incubator program would impact the growth of their businesses in many areas. The study further found that there were a few challenges with access to a Business Incubator. Prominent amount them was the restricted access to SMEs located in the cities. Secondly, the respondents bemoaned that the application procedure was complicated and needed to be simplified and translated into local languages. The research makes the conclusion that Business Incubators have a positive impact on the growth of small businesses in Zambia, based on the empirical evidence obtained during the study. The study revealed 32% of incubated businesses had reduced their operation costs. Contrary to available research, entrepreneurs who had received support from Business Incubators employed fewer employees than those that did not. The study therefore, questioned how business incubators increased the probability of the long term survival of the enterprise.
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Choto, Prominent. "The impact of business incubators on survivalist entrepreneurs in the Cape Metropolitan area." Thesis, Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11838/2069.
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Thesis (MTech (Business Administration (Entrepreneurship)))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2015.The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of business incubators on survivalist entrepreneurs in the Cape Metropolitan Area. The question that guides this research is: What is the impact of business incubators on survivalist entrepreneurs in the Cape Town Metropolitan Area? This study was conducted in the context of economic growth and development, considering addressing the following problems: small business failure and the unemployment rate in South Africa. Although entrepreneurship is of greater importance to the growth and development of an economy, not all entrepreneurs are presented with the same opportunities and resources as others. As opposed to formal businesses, informal small businesses are normally discriminated against in terms of support, which is offered to them to necessitate their growth. The contribution that they make towards economic growth and development is often seen as insignificant. They lack opportunities that are enjoyed by large businesses and they suffer from discriminating policies, which has resulted in suppressed growth of these business ventures.
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Mutambi, Joshua. "Stimulating Industrial Development in Uganda through Open Innovation Business Incubators." Licentiate thesis, Karlskrona : Blekinge Institute of Technology, 2011. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:bth-00501.
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There are many existing programs and initiatives in Uganda supporting small businesses, but tend to suffer from a number of weaknesses. In particular typically small businesses find it difficult to do research and development; commercialize their results in markets (innovation) as fast as they should. For micro, small & medium enterprises to be dully competitive in a competitive economic environment requires that they develop internal capabilities to effectively assimilate, use and adapt product and process technologies for their businesses to survive on an ongoing basis. To overcome this drawback, the concept of Business Incubation has been proposed. This concept has gained large interest in the research community. The key idea is to create and nurture new businesses for growth by providing services and infrastructure required by utilizing the external knowledge sources (open innovation) and triple-helix model which assist formation of business and industrial clusters. A business incubator is an organization that supports the creation and growth of new businesses by providing services and infrastructure that is required by the targeted clients. Given that most firms in developing countries start too small to compete especially in international markets, a pre-requisite to industrial development, governments and policy makers should give particular attention to the constraints and needs of MSMEs. This can be done by adopting a mix of policies and framework conditions to reduce on the obstacles that hamper technological innovation, collaboration and business growth. In particular is access to finance and enhancing technology and business capacity development through training, linkages and networks. This Licentiate thesis discusses and reviews the initiatives and programs aimed at supporting the development of MSMEs with a view to stimulate industrial development in Uganda. The main aim of this research is to examine the process of business incubation and explain the contribution of open innovation business incubators to entrepreneurs/ start-up firms within the broader context of developing entrepreneurship, promoting science, technology and innovation and creating employment. This research focuses on the roles and relationships of government, university and research institutions and the private sector as sources of knowledge for technological innovations. Literature review, theory understanding, and participatory methods including group discussions with questionnaires, meetings and interviews, were used to achieve the objectives. From the findings, it was revealed among MSMEs that due to their sizes, limited managerial and technological skills, and inadequate functional business support services have had adverse effects on their upgrading and growth. There was little linkage and follow up between industry and other public research sectors i.e. government agencies and higher institutions although there are quite a number of support institutions with poor coordination. The research analyzed a wide range of issues that are related to the desired structural transformation of the Ugandan economy towards industrialization process. Finally it will propose strategies for the most appropriate model for Uganda.
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Koseoglu, Gamze. "Social Capital Development Among Tenant Firms And Between Tenant Firms And The Host University In Business Incubators: A Case Of A Turkish Business Incubator." Thesis, METU, 2007. http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12608448/index.pdf.
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In order to determine the effects of social capital in innovative contexts, Nahapiet and Ghoshal&rsquos (1998) three dimensions of social capital (structural, relational and cognitive) were investigated in a business incubator located in a university science park. This thesis tries to answer five questions for the incubator context: (1) What are the antecedents of the three dimensions of social capital? (2) What are the benefits of social capital for the tenant firms? (3) How are the dimensions of social capital related to the antecedents and benefits? (4) What are the effects of being located in a university on social capital development between the firms and the host university? and (5) What is the role of the incubator management/specialists on social capital creation? The research questions were investigated in two layers: (1) Social capital development among tenant firms, and (2) Social capital development between the tenant firms and the host university. The research was designed with a multi-method approach along four steps. In the first step, the selected incubator was observed for a day. In the second stage, a pilot interview was conducted with one of the tenant firms. Next the firms were asked to complete a questionnaire regarding their demographic characteristics. In the last stage, a theoretical sample of nine selected firms&rsquo
owners were interviewed. All the collected data were analyzed following the grounded theory approach (Strauss and Corbin, 1990) and seven propositions were developed to be investigated in further research.
17
NÄTTERLUND, LINA, and Lärkert Julia Sigerud. "Business Incubation Success in Biotechnology : How Should Bio-incubator Performance be Assessed?" Thesis, KTH, Entreprenörskap och Innovation, 2014. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-147769.
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University business incubators (UBIs) are organizations that provide new startup companies with a support environment. However, there are split opinions on the UBIs’ contributions to the startups and the regional economy and, consequently, there are also split opinions on how to assess UBI performance. According to the resource-based view (RBV), a company’s competitive advantage results from the various resources the company has access to. The biotechnology industry is characterized by high research intensity, weak entrepreneurial and managerial skills of the entrepreneur, huge capital requirements, and long product evelopment approval processes. Previous research has showed that these characteristics imply certain challenges for new biotech ventures. In this study, these industry specific characteristic and challenges were believed to affect what constitutes successful bioincubation and how bio-incubators’ performance should be assessed. The purpose of this report is, thus, to examine how bio-incubator performance can, and should be, assessed. An existing framework for assessing UBI performance is used as a basis for performing emistructured interviews with 18 incubator managers in order to examine what performance indicators are perceived as robust for assessing bio-incubator performance. The findings show that the value contributions of bio-incubators mainly include space and network provision, support services, and coaching. The perceived value contributions, in combination with the perceived challenges, imply that it is particularly appropriate to assess bio-incubators performance in terms of Job Creation, Economy Enhancement, Access to Funds, and the Incubator Offer and Internal Environment. However, Job Creation and Economy Enhancement are closely related and are therefore suggested to be merged into a single performance indicator. Hardware and Services, on the other hand, seems to be less relevant for assessing bio-incubator performance as it depends on the incubator’s strategy. The study concludes that there are additional ways of assessing bio-incubator performance, such as shortened time to graduation, links with universities, and the flexibility of the incubator. Further research may include the entrepreneurs’ point of view or use the approach of this study to examine incubator performance in other high-technology industries.
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Villarroel, Rojas Mayra Veronica. "Business incubators : Knowledge transfer and networks creation as key success factors." Thesis, Linnaeus University, Linnaeus School of Business and Economics, 2010. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-6206.
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The purpose of this research is to analyze business incubators and the relevant factors that take place inside these organizations.
The methodology used was a case study approach, which investigates a real environment, in this case: NeoEmpresa, a business incubator located in La Paz, Bolivia. The explanatory approach is also considered in this research since the purpose is to explain the business incubation characteristics as well as understand the importance of knowledge transfer and network creation inside business incubators.
The findings propose that the most adequate incubation model strongly depends on the incubator’s main purpose and that the learning practices that take place inside an incubator involve knowledge transfer, more considered experience transfer, and networking as relevant factors.
19
Scott, Julie Lenée. "Hatching the equity nest egg : the role of a university incubator in creating successful startup firms /." Thesis, Connect to this title online; UW restricted, 2000. http://hdl.handle.net/1773/7556.
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Alon, Ido. "Entrepreneurship in Northeast Brazil : an evaluation of business incubators in the region." Master's thesis, Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestão, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10400.5/6243.
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Mestrado em Economia e Gestão de Ciência, Tecnologia e InovaçãoThis research has been conducted in the Brazil’s Northeast region, economically the weakest region in the country. A total of 35 business incubators (97%) and 93 firms (29%) were surveyed by questionnaire and interviews were conducted in 14 incubators in order to map the region’s incubators and to evaluate the practice and the possible impact of this economic development tool. In our analysis we found evidence of structural and administrative failures, absence of adequate business development and financial instability due to a low level of public investment. Since there is no clear policy, each incubator is an independent initiative of either a public or private university, a technology park, a science department of local government or a non-profit organization. The lack of adequate finance has as a consequence the prevalence of software firms on the expense of other innovative sectors and the abundance of part-time incubator and firm personnel and, more importantly, it also brings about part-time entrepreneurs. Apart of a relatively small fraction of strong and effective incubators, the majority of the surveyed incubators performs an incorrect firm selection process, does not define a fixed period for firms graduating from the incubator and in general provides the firm with facilities but not with consistent consulting on most of the relevant areas of business development. The dissertation concludes that this economic development tool can be put to greater advantage of the region, if given policy and managerial changes are introduced in the near future.
Esta pesquisa foi realizada no Nordeste do Brasil, a região mais pobre do país. 35 incubadoras de empresas (97%) e 93 empresas incubadas (29%) responderam questionários e foram realizadas entrevistas em 14 incubadoras, a fim de mapear as incubadoras da região e avaliar a prática e o possível impacto desse instrumento de desenvolvimento económico. O nosso estudo é inspirado na política de incubadora tecnológica pública israelita. Um programa do governo com 22 anos de operação, que utiliza um modelo de incubadoras privadas com amplo investimento público. O caso de Israel fornece um ponto de referência que pode ajudar a comparar e compreender melhor o potencial da incubadora no nordeste do Brasil na sua forma actual. Na nossa análise encontramos evidências de falhas estruturais e administrativos, ausência de comportamento empresarial e instabilidade financeira devido a um baixo nível de investimento público. Como não existe uma política clara na região, cada incubadora é uma iniciativa independente de um instituto de ensino público ou privado, um parque tecnológico, departamento de ciência do governo local ou outra organização sem fins lucrativos. A falta de recursos financeiros traz a prevalência de empresas do sector informático em detrimento de outros sectores inovadores e a abundância de funcionários em tempo parcial nas incubadoras e nas firmas e o mais importante, o empreendedorismo a tempo parcial. Além de uma parte relativamente pequena de incubadoras fortes e eficazes, a maioria realiza um processo incorrecto de selecção de empresa, não define período fixo para a incubação e em geral, fornece as empresas com instalações, mas falta uma consultoria consistente e intervenção pró-activa.
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Burnett, Hermina Hendrika Maria. "Exploring the parameters for the optimum funding of Australian incubators from an icubator manager perspective." Swinburne Research Bank, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/1959.3/48595.
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Thesis (PhD) - Australian Graduate School of Entrepreneurship, Faculty of Business and Enterprise, Swinburne University of Technology, 2009.A thesis is submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy, Australian Graduate School of Entrepreneurship, Faculty of Business and Enterprise, Swinburne University of Technology - 2009. Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (p. 250-280)
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João, Domingos Herminio Chico. "Attitudes towards Business Plans." Thesis, Jönköping University, JIBS, Business Administration, 2009. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hj:diva-11236.
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Purpose - This paper aims to analyze different groups, such as venture capitalists’, banks’, governmental support agencies’ and incubator managers’ attitudes toward business plans.
Approach – The interviews have been conducted within the following institutions: Jönköping Business Development (JBD, Handelsbanken and Swedbank, Jönköping, ALMI and NyföretagarCentrum (Government Support Agencies (GSAs) and Business Incubator Science Park Jönköping (BISPJ). The author has chosen to conduct the study within this the previous mentioned institutions because those are the ones who mostly demand a formal written BP from firms or potential businesses.
Findings – it was found that all the institutions interviewed thinks that a formal written business plan is very important for the entrepreneurs to clarify goals and raise funds. They don’t see any direct negative sides with a business plan. It was also found that the majority were of the opinion that a business plan does not need to be long. The funding decision is mostly based on the personal characteristics of the entrepreneur; it can be very hard for start-ups manager to convince the funds providers that they are the right people. The type of resources provided to the venture determines the need of follow-ups. It is done mainly based on the financial aspects while those who provide advice or assistance tend to not engage in follow-ups.
Limitations - the study was conducted in the period when the many of the potential people to be interviewed were on holiday. The language was sometimes a limitation since English is not the first language neither for the interviewer nor the interviewees.
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Gaidelionis, Egidijus. "Lietuvos verslo inkubatorių problemos ir perspektyvos." Master's thesis, Lithuanian Academic Libraries Network (LABT), 2006. http://vddb.library.lt/obj/LT-eLABa-0001:E.02~2006~D_20061212_165214-16587.
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Business incubators are one of the state means intended to support small and medium-sized businesses. Business incubators supply beginner enterprisers with assistance and information necessary for initiating new businesses. The year of 1998 is considered to be the beginning of business incubators in Lithuania, as in the month of June in 1998 the first business incubator was officially registered in Kaunas. The business incubator of Telšiai region and the business incubator of Vilnija were registered in November of the same year and business incubator of Alytus was registered in December of this year. In January of 1999 the business incubator in Šiauliai was recorded. In the august of the year 2000 Kazlų Rūda business incubator was registered. Finally, in 2004 the seventh business incubator in Lithuania, which was established in Ignalina, began to function under the auspices of the state government. The main objective of business incubators is to support beginner enterprisers, to promote establishing new work places, to minimise (decrease) the risk of business operations and help businesses with initiative ideas yet short of financial resources to undertake self-sufficient practice and compete in the market successfully.
In Lithuania businesses are held in the business incubator for three years. During the first year they pay 25% of rental taxes, during the second year they pay 50% of rental taxes and during the third year they pay 75% of rental taxes. The remaining sum is... [to full text]
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Fynn, Clive Adrian. "A founder's strategy and entrepreneurial leadership are critical elements in growing and developing a midsized venture." Pretoria : [s.n.], 2005. http://upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/available/etd-11072005-115124.
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Ikebuaku, Kenechukwu Maduka. "Expanding Entrepreneurial Capabilities Through Business Incubators: A Case Study Of The iDea Hub Nigeria." University of the Western Cape, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/11394/6045.
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Magister Artium (Development Studies) - MA (DVS)Entrepreneurship has long been offered as the panacea for poor economic growth and high rate of unemployment. Business incubation is considered an effective means for enhancing entrepreneurial actitivities while engendering socio-economic development. Information Technology Developers Entrepreneurship Accelerator (iDEA), is a software business incubation programme established by the Nigerian government as a means of boosting digital entrepreneurship activities and reducing unemployment in the country. This study assessed the contribution of iDEA Nigeria's entrepreneurship programmes towards enhancing the capabilities of its tenants.
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Wilson, Peter. "Fostering entrepreneurship and innovation through business incubators : a comparative analysis of the role of European business and innovation centres." Thesis, University of Newcastle Upon Tyne, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/10443/1026.
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Interventions aimed at creating an environment in which businesses can flourish are a central element of public policies (supranational, national, regional and sub-regional/local) concerned with promoting enterprise and entrepreneurship, supporting indigenous industry and fostering regional economic competitiveness. Customarily policies concerned with improving the business environment have been of two types; those concerned with the improvement of the interactions of government with enterprises in terns of regulations, administrative procedures and taxation, and those concerned with the direct provision of various forms of business support such as business incubation. This research explores the rationale for the provision of business support, specifically business incubation as practised by European Business Innovation Centres, and investigates the degree and extent to which their activities impacts the performance of assisted businesses.
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Mörke, Oscar, and Karl-Philip Michael Swensson. "Exploration of virtual incubators and development of incubator services for digital entrepreneurship : Receiving Entrepreneurial support from anywhere in the world?" Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Industriell teknik, 2020. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-415430.
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Entrepreneurship is frequently linked together with aspects of economic growth and development. In the last 40 years, an increasing number of incubators and service providers have been created to stimulate entrepreneurship and innovation. However, in the increasingly globalized and digitalized world, few virtual and digital initiatives have successfully been studied to encourage and facilitate entrepreneurship. This study aims to understand further how digital and virtual products and services can aid entrepreneurs in venture creation and potentially add to an updated and broader understanding of the potential in a virtual incubator program. By looking at three categories of entrepreneurial support actors, traditional public incubators, private incubators, and digital service providers. 14 semi-structured interviews were conducted to gain more in-depth knowledge of how they operate. More specifically, this study is conducted with actors that share the vision to assist startup in their initial phase and create a deeper understanding of what the incubator offers to startups and the possibility to adapt and improve their process using digital tools and external partnerships. Results indicate that the use of digital tools is varied. Incubators are leaning towards relying more on social media for reaching potential entrepreneurs and ideas, and further that a factor of validating every aspect of the startup is essential to promote success. The incubator mainly acts as a mediator of network, funding, coaching, and finding talents has during the COVID-19 pandemic moved most of their activities from physical to online. The issue of trust-building is, however, still prominent, and the incubators are looking for ways and tools to improve on this issue. Implications of this study have the potential to lower barriers to entrepreneurship, where entrepreneurial support becomes less dependent on their local ecosystem and geographical factors. Future research is encouraged to classify virtual incubators and a further look at specific cases and pursuit more longitudinal studies to fully understand the potential effects and implications. This study contributes to the field of incubators and entrepreneurial support and the ongoing digital paradigm shift.
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Maus, Amandine. "Évolution des business models d'incubateurs : contribution de la théorie des capacités dynamiques." Thesis, Montpellier, 2019. http://www.theses.fr/2019MONTD009.
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Cette thèse étudie les incubateurs d’entreprises. Il en existe actuellement 7 000 dans le monde. Cette population d’organisations s’est rapidement développée depuis la dernière décennie, contribuant au dynamisme croissant de l’environnement de l’accompagnement entrepreneurial. En écho à ce contexte, un courant de recherche plus stratégique a émergé dans la littérature au début des années 2000. Les chercheurs y mobilisent des concepts du management stratégique pour déterminer comment les incubateurs, désormais remis en question, s’adaptent pour demeurer compétitifs. Nous nous inscrivons dans ce courant en mobilisant le business model. Ce concept décrit la façon dont les organisations créent et capturent de la valeur pour survivre et se développer dans leur industrie. Nous prolongeons les travaux qui portent sur l’évolution des business models d’incubateurs en explorant une approche plus compréhensive et processuelle, perspective peu étudiée à notre connaissance par la littérature. Le modèle RCOV (Ressources, Compétences, Organisation et Valeur) facilite dans ce cadre la représentation des étapes du processus de transformation des business models. Nous l’utilisons en prenant appui sur la théorie des capacités dynamiques. Selon cette dernière, certaines capacités provoquent des processus entrepreneuriaux qui transforment les business models et accroissent la performance des organisations. Deux études qualitatives ont été conduites pour déterminer comment les incubateurs développent des capacités dynamiques et pour appréhender l’évolution de leurs business models. La première, de nature exploratoire, est composée de 20 entretiens semi-directifs réalisés avec des directeurs d’incubateurs français. La seconde est une étude de cas multiple et longitudinale. D’avril 2016 à février 2018, 135 entretiens semi-directifs, près de 480 heures d’observation non participantes et de la collecte de documents ont été réalisés auprès de quatre incubateurs français. Les résultats obtenus soulignent la présence de capacités dynamiques développées grâce à une stratégie entrepreneuriale et micro-fondations de niveau individuel, interactionnel et organisationnel. Ces capacités provoquent une recherche permanente d’hybridation équilibrée, entre secteurs public et privé, des compétences, ressources et routines d’incubateurs. Grâce à leur base de ressources hybridée, les incubateurs attirent des organisations publiques et privées. Ces partenaires apportent des ressources pour co-conduire des projets entrepreneuriaux. Avec les incubateurs, ils se lancent dans la co-création et la poursuite de nouvelles formes d’accompagnement (accélération, coworking, hackathon, etc.). Ces processus entrepreneuriaux collectifs font émerger de nouveaux business models, à la fois multifaces et hybrides. Ces derniers permettent aux incubateurs d’attirer et de satisfaire un plus grand nombre d’entrepreneurs grâce aux formes d’accompagnement développées, et d’acquérir de nouvelles ressources financières, tant publiques que privées. Parmi les apports majeurs de cette thèse, l’un d’eux concerne la définition des incubateurs. La dynamique entrepreneuriale collective indique que ces organisations ne sont plus uniquement stratégiques, mais également entrepreneurialesThis thesis studies business incubators. There are currently 7,000 around the world. This population of organizations has grown rapidly since the last decade. It contributes to the increasing dynamism of the incubator environment. Related to this context, a strategic research stream emerged in the literature in the early 2000s. Scholars are mobilizing strategic management concepts to determine how challenged incubators are adapting to remain competitive. We are positioning this thesis in this trend by mobilizing the business model. This concept describes how organizations create and capture value to survive and grow in their industry. We are exploring a more comprehensive approach to the incubator’s business model innovation process. It is an underdeveloped perspective in the literature. The RCOV (Resources, Competences, Organization, and Value) model facilitates the representation of stages of this process. We use it in a dynamic capabilities perspective. According to the latter, specific capacities cause entrepreneurial processes. They permit to transform business models and increase the organizations’ performance. We did two qualitative studies to determine how incubators develop dynamic capabilities and to study their business models innovation process. A first exploratory study consists of 20 semi-directive interviews of French incubator managers. A second is a multiple and longitudinal case study. From April 2016 to February 2018, 135 semi-structured interviews, nearly 480 observation hours and document collection were conducted in four French incubators. The results underline specific dynamic capabilities developed thanks to an entrepreneurial strategy as well as individual, interactional and organizational microfondations. These capabilities cause a permanent search for a balanced hybridization, between public and private sectors, of incubators’ competences, resources and routines. With their hybrid resource base, incubators attract public and private organizations. These partners bring resources to develop entrepreneurial projects. With incubators, they co-create and pursue new incubation models (acceleration, coworking, hackathon, etc.). These collective entrepreneurial processes develop new business models. They are multifaceted and hybridized. They enable incubators to attract and satisfy a larger number of entrepreneurs through incubation models developed. They also permit incubator to acquire new financial resources, both public and private. A major contribution of this thesis is related to the incubator definition. The collective entrepreneurial dynamic detected indicates that these organizations are no longer strategic, but also entrepreneurial ones
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Culp, Rhonda Phillips. "A test of business growth through analysis of a technology incubator program." Diss., Georgia Institute of Technology, 1996. http://hdl.handle.net/1853/22720.
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Ramluckan, Sandheep. "An exploratory case study on the performance of the SEDA business incubators in South Africa." Thesis, Stellenbosch : University of Stellenbosch, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/6442.
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Hansson, Anders, and Kim Hedin. "Motives for internationalization : Small companies in Swedish incubators and science parks." Thesis, Uppsala University, Department of Business Studies, 2007. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-7880.
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In this paper we investigate small and young companies’ motives for internationalization. There are many reasons for companies to engage in foreign direct investment. This study is based on theories including four categories of internationalization drivers that motivate firms to establish themselves abroad. Theses categories consist of market, resource, efficiency, and strategic resources seeking motives. A fifth category was added in order to include network seeking motives.
The survey was conducted using a web based questionnaire. The target population consisted of companies that are members of nine Swedish business incubators and science parks. E-mails were sent to representatives in the incubators and science parks and were then forwarded to the companies, asking them to participate in the study.
We conclude that the member companies of Swedish incubators and science parks responded most positively to network and market seeking motives. We therefore regard the companies as network seekers and market seekers. Four motives were by the responders associated with the highest degree of importance. Two were in the category of network seeking motives: starting new collaborations and staying close to main client or supplier. The other two were in the category of market seeking motives: reaching new markets and limitations of the home market.
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Lee, Carolyn Ging 1975. "Business incubators as an economic development strategy : a case study of Oakland's communications technology cluster." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2000. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/42821.
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Thesis (M.C.P.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 2000.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 73-77).
Business incubators are a rapidly growing trend in economic development. The National Business Incubator Association estimates there are nearly 600 incubators in North America today which each help create over 500 jobs. Through the provision of real estate, physical amenities, and business services, incubators can improve the success rates of small businesses, which in turn translates into jobs, diversification of the local economy, and tax base expansion. The growth of the high technology sector promises to generate quality, well-paying jobs. Therefore, communities are pumping large sums of public dollars to support and sustain high tech business incubators. However, without a full understanding of how incubators impact local communities, it is difficult to justify these public investments. Moreover, without evaluating its strengths and weaknesses, and how the incubator fits within the communities' larger business development strategy, opportunities to further improve this economic development tool in practice may be overlooked. This thesis assesses the impact of the Communications Technology Cluster (CTC) located in Oakland, California. Using business attraction, job creation, business retention, and effects on city image as evaluation measurements, this research shows that CTC has produced mixed results. In the process of evaluating CTC, several larger issues emerge, of which workforce development, business services, and the city's hard and "soft" infrastructure are identified as key impediments to the realization of the city's economic development goals. In light of these findings, this thesis proposes an action strategy for improving the incubator's operations and for considering new ways of thinking about the incubator's role in the overall economic development strategy. The thesis concludes with the argument that the publicly affiliated incubator should be integrated into the community's overall strategy in order to achieve its full impact. This has implications for economic development practitioners. By extracting lessons from the case study of CTC in Oakland, economic development practitioners can begin to consider the existing assets and liabilities of the city, and design an incubator strategy tailored to best meet the needs and objectives of the local community.
by Carolyn Ging Lee.
M.C.P.
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Page, Andrew. "Enablers and Inhibitors of Digital Startup Evolution : A Multiple-Case Study of Swedish Business Incubators." Thesis, Umeå universitet, Institutionen för informatik, 2020. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-175495.
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Global advances in digital technology are facilitating a corresponding rise in digital entrepreneurship and its startup manifestation. Many uncertainties exist upon the road to digital startup evolution; a number of which may be successfully navigated with the assistance of business incubators. While these organisations provide valuable guidance and support to the startup community, their efforts are, at least in some part, constrained by the lack of a consistent and coherent roadmap to guide both them and their incubatees. This work proposes a solution to that deficiency by addressing the question - What are the enabling and inhibiting factors in digital startup evolution within an incubator setting? - via a multiple-case study that examined digital startups under the umbrella of three business incubators in the city of Umeå, Sweden. This work builds on the existing literature both through its narrowed focus on incubators as well as through its presentation of the Ideation Dynamics Model as a proposed guide for both incubators and digital startups to follow.
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Plesha, Suzanne G. "A critical analysis of worldview and culture in business incubation narratives." Virtual Press, 2005. http://liblink.bsu.edu/uhtbin/catkey/1313946.
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This study explored the possible connection between organizational culture and worldview and the narratives professional associations use to sell these perspectives to external audiences. Burke's pentad and ratio analysis were utilized to identify the dominant terms in nineteen narratives featured in a promotional booklet published by the National Business Incubation Association. In eleven of the stories, the "agent" elements were most prevalent in these stories, signaling an idealistic worldview. The remaining eight narratives were agency-dominant and provided an underlying pragmatism to the highly idealistic outlook of the agent-focused stories. In addition to providing a philosophical label for the narrative messages, analyzing the pentad elements gave clues as to this association's value system toward incubation clients and the business incubation industry in general. The implications of this professional association's influence on an emerging industry were also discussed.Department of Communication Studies
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Ollerenshaw, Alison. "The relationship between business incubator services and the psychological capital of tenants." Thesis, Federation University Australia, 2019. http://researchonline.federation.edu.au/vital/access/HandleResolver/1959.17/173755.
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Business incubators (BI) provide a supportive environment for new tenant businesses to grow to independence. Incubators offer characteristic services including (a) space, physical resources, and infrastructure; (b) business support services, (c) networking; and, (d) structured selection, entry, and exit. Despite the global growth in incubator facilities, complemented by extensive research, knowledge gaps remain. Little research has examined the relationship between the characteristic services at incubators and tenants’ psychological capital; a higher-order construct representing an individual’s positive psychological state of development that includes hope, efficacy, resilience, and optimism. Preliminary examination of the characteristic services at business incubators show analogies with interventions for developing psychological capital. Two research studies were designed to examine these relationships. In the first study, survey (n = 30) and interview data (n = 12) were collected from incubator tenants to examine the existence of a relationship between the four characteristic services at business incubators and tenants’ psychological capital, their hope, efficacy, resilience, and optimism. The survey data confirmed the existence of a relationship between three incubator services – space, physical resources, and infrastructure, business support services, and networking – and tenants’ psychological capital. Tenants’ narrative experiences confirmed that these same three incubator services support tenants’ hope, efficacy, resilience, and optimism. This finding implies that the three incubator services contribute to, and augment tenants’ positive psychological states, which is then manifest in their positive behaviours and attitudes towards their business. To further elucidate these relationships a second study was conducted. Data from surveys (n = 75) and interviews (n = 28) with incubators managers also confirmed that space, physical resources, and infrastructure, business support services, and networking were analogous with methods that support tenants’ hope, efficacy, resilience, and optimism. These findings infer that incubator managers are not only instrumental in delivering these three characteristic services at incubators but are integral in optimising these services to benefit tenants’ hope, efficacy, resilience, and optimism. This current research provides robust evidence that three characteristic services at incubators are associated with tenants’ psychological capital, hope, efficacy, resilience, and optimism. These research findings are novel, and the implications for the incubator industry wide-ranging, with evidence indicating that the three characteristic services at incubators are analogous with interventions that support tenants’ psychological capital, and that incubator staff are integral to the delivery of these characteristic services. New directions for the incubator industry are proposed that include establishing a consistent approach to delivering the characteristic services at incubators that support incubator tenants’ businesses, and their positive psychological development.Doctor of Philosophy
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Chang, Youngha. "Changing direction and the evolution of Corporate Venturing in an ICT firm in Korea." Thesis, University of Sussex, 2018. http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/79835/.
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‘Corporate Venturing (CV)', which is broadly defined as an innovation practice by creating and nurturing internal CV teams or investing in external start-ups (Burgelman, 1983b; Dushnitsky and Lenox, 2005), has been adopted by large incumbent firms wishing to ensure their survival and business s growth in the future. Despite its promised benefits, CV activities are often terminated in the early stages. Nevertheless, some firms start their CV programs again, and these recurring patterns of CV activities contribute towards ‘CV cyclicality'. However, we have limited understandings of the phenomenon of CV cyclicality at the level of the firm. This thesis, therefore, aims to develop a better understanding of the cyclical nature of CV (i.e. CV cyclicality) in a way that helps managers manage CV activities—engaged scholarship (Van de Ven, 2007). To explore CV cyclicality at the firm level, this thesis adopted an in-depth case study approach. A large Korean ICT firm (pseudonym: Company Alpha), which is the exemplar of a large firm in Korea that repeated CV activities over time, was examined (from early 2013 to 2017) to find out how CV activities were developed, terminated, and then re-started during the period between 1990 and 2015. This approach enabled to find the importance of the term ‘direction' for the CV practitioners at Company Alpha and in the Korean context. Hence, this thesis also aims to usefully conceptualize ‘direction' itself to understand and explain Company Alpha's corporate venturing activities and how they repeat over time. This thesis suggests that the direction of corporate venturing (CV) can be usefully conceptualized as an internal consistency between the firm's structure (with actors residing in the structure) and its strategy. Drawing on research orchestration theory (Sirmon et al., 2007; 2011), a conceptual framework (the direction of CV) was developed by combining both the main managerial actors who conduct CV activities (the starting point) and the primary strategic objective that the CV program pursues and is designed to achieve (the end point). The thesis demonstrates that this new framing of direction helps us to better understand and explain Company Alpha's repeating CV cycles. From the examination of the twenty-six years history of CV (from 1990 to 2015) at the Korean ICT firm through the lens of the direction of CV, this thesis makes its main argument about the CV cyclicality at Company Alpha: rather than being terminated separately, a series of CV programs evolved over time for the purpose of combining resources in a new way; results of deliberate and experimental efforts then formed an evolutionary cycle of CV. The thesis also argues that what was terminated during the firm's repeated CV activities was, instead, a distinct evolutionary cycle of CV, which later re-initiated with the next CV cycle. This thesis makes substantial contributions to knowledge. Firstly, this thesis makes contributions to the CV literature by providing a detailed and empirical evidence-based explanation of CV cyclicality at a large Korean high-tech firm (repeated evolutionary CV cycles aimed at new resource combination), which goes beyond a relatively simple dichotomy between termination and evolution. Secondly, the thesis also contributes to the strategy and innovation management literature by suggesting a new framing of direction from an internal firm perspective. This helps us to understand organizational and strategic change in a new way that organizations can generate changes proactively by reconfiguring their internal elements, even without stimuli external to the firm. Thirdly, for practitioners, the findings from the thesis contribute by providing an empirical insight that can help managers manage their CV activities. Almost no organizational memory about their previous CV efforts remained within the firm, however, this thesis casts an empirical light by unfolding how a repeating pattern (the evolution of CV) occurred within the first (1997–2002) and the second CV cycle (2011–2015) of the firm. The case firm and other companies may benefit from having knowledge of a corporate history of CV cycles including failures.
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Log, Filip Nikitas Metallinos, and Mojtaba Parsatemijani. "INCUBATOR RESULTS: IMPRESSIVE OR IRRELEVANT? : A Quantitative Study of the Success of Swedish Incubator Graduates." Thesis, Umeå universitet, Företagsekonomi, 2019. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-160385.
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With the influx of state-funded business development programs and organizations, it is of increasing relevance to understand the success and value creation of said programs and organizations. Sweden is one of the states in the world with the highest number of incubators per capita, and has an extensive knowledge network surrounding incubation. However, the success of them is hard to predict at best, owing to different incubator practices and selection processes for different industries, for example. This creates the question of whether incubators are a worthwhile investment strategy to create growth, and how this should be assessed. Prior literature on the field have used a range of different measures, such as survival rate over time, but we are more interested in the long-term growth caused by incubators by their graduated firms. Thus, this study’s purpose is to assess whether Northern Swedish incubator graduates see stronger growth than comparable non-incubated firms over time. The approach taken has been to study the 5-year cumulative average employee and turnover growth rates of firms in IT & non-digital technology in Northern Sweden. Quantitative firm data was analyzed deductively in accordance to hypotheses developed on prior theory on the field. The incubator firm sample had been affiliated with either Uminova Innovation or Arctic Business Incubator (ABI), as the 3rd incubator in Northern Sweden, Bizmaker, had no suitable firms for our study. The comparable reference firms were from all counties related to Northern Sweden, Norrland Land. Analyzing the data revealed a significantly higher turnover growth rate for incubator graduates in the region, as opposed to the numbers of non-incubated firms. Incubated IT firms seemed to have a quicker turnover growth than that of incubated non-digital technology firms as well. However, this was not the case regarding employee growth, where no significant relation was between that and incubation, or lack thereof. The data suggests that incubators create some lasting economic growth, at the very least, but cannot show to great growth in things such as employment, societal growth, and creation of other kinds of value like environmental and social. The suggested course of action for further actors in the field is to expand the study, e.g. by using different time spans, regions and researched types of value. Incubators do seem to have an effect on their firms, but it is difficult to pinpoint and harder to assign a value to in comparison to the resources spent on them.
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PAULA, LUIZ MAURICIO DE GARCIA. "CURRENT STRATEGIES ADOPTED BY ENTREPRENEURSHIP BUSINESS DERIVED FROM INCUBATORS: ANALYSIS OF ITS ENTERPRISE AND ENVIRONMENTAL ADEQUACY." PONTIFÍCIA UNIVERSIDADE CATÓLICA DO RIO DE JANEIRO, 2005. http://www.maxwell.vrac.puc-rio.br/Busca_etds.php?strSecao=resultado&nrSeq=8004@1.
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O crescimento da atividade empreendedora no Brasil,
associado à expansão das
incubadoras de empresas, coloca em destaque a importância
de se identificar os principais
fatores estratégicos relacionados ao sucesso deste tipo de
negócio. O sucesso de uma
empresa não depende somente de bons produtos e serviços.
Uma boa estratégia é
fundamental, mas para isso é preciso saber como aplicá-la,
inovando sempre. O único modo
do empreendedor sobreviver, dada a concorrência que se
forma, é construir competências
únicas que diferenciem a organização emergente dos seus
competidores, uma vez que
conjuntos únicos de recursos são primordiais para a
geração de vantagem competitiva
criadora de valor. Este pesquisa tem como objetivo
identificar quais são as estratégias mais
adequadas ao contexto atual no caso de empresas
empreendedoras, considerando seus
recursos, inclusive competências, por meio de um
levantamento de percepções do tipo
Survey, complementado por depoimentos em entrevistas
pessoais. A interpretação e a
análise dos dados foram realizadas com base no referencial
teórico, fundamentado em
revisão de literatura relacionada à área em estudo, com
auxílio do modelo genérico
integrativo de Macedo-Soares (2001b). O presente estudo
teve como foco as empresas
empreendedoras pertencentes à incubadoras de três grandes
universidades do Rio de
Janeiro. (PUC, UFRJ e UERJ), abrindo caminho para que esta
pesquisa possa ser realizada
em âmbito nacional. Os resultados da pesquisa evidenciaram
uma adequação entre os
objetivos estratégicos explicitados pelas empresas,
permitindo valorizar suas forças,
reduzindo as fraquezas destas organizações, de modo a
potencializar oportunidades e
minimizar ameaças de seus ambientes competitivos. Como
recomendação resultante da
pesquisa, sugere-se a realização de novos trabalhos
enfocando empresas empreendedoras
oriundas de incubadoras de outros estados que não o Rio de
Janeiro, ora pesquisado.The growth of the entrepreneurship activity in Brazil, together with the expansion of the business incubators, gives evidence to the importance of identifying the main strategic factors related to the success of this kind of business. The success of an entrepreneur is not only dependable on its good products and services. A good strategy is of fundamental importance; however, it is necessary to know how to apply it, always innovating. The only way for an entrepreneur to survive, under the competition that is formed, is to build unique abilities to make the emerging organization different from its competitors, once unique groups of resources are essential to the generation of a competitive advantage in the creation of value. This research has the objective of identifying the most adequate strategies within the present context in the case of entrepreneurship business, considering their resources, including competence, through the raising of perceptions of the Survey type, complemented by the testimonies of personal interviews. The interpretation and analysis of the data have been achieved based on the reference theory, and evidenced by the revision of pertinent literature in the area under study, with the help of the integrative generic model of Macedo -Soares (2001 b). The present study is focused on entrepreneurship business belonging to the incubators of three large universities of Rio de Janeiro (PUC, UFRJ and UERJ), setting the way for this research to be undertaken nation wide. The results of the research have evidenced an adequacy between the strategic objectives expressed by the enterprises, allowing the valuation of their forces, reducing the weaknesses of these organizations, in order to potentiate opportunities and to minimize the threats of their competitive environments. As a recommendation resulting from this research, it is suggested that new researches be undertaken, with a focus on entrepreneurship business originated from incubators, in states other than Rio de Janeiro, herein searched.
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Dornelas, José Carlos Assis. "Implantação do plano de negócios nas incubadoras de empresas paulistas." Universidade de São Paulo, 2001. http://www.teses.usp.br/teses/disponiveis/18/18135/tde-06042017-145514/.
Full textAbstract:
Atualmente, o número de incubadoras de empresas brasileiras tem crescido como nunca. Sendo um dos principais mecanismos de auxílio aos empreendedores iniciantes, as ações desenvolvidas junto a estas incubadoras precisam ser muito bem planejadas e posteriormente avaliadas com critérios claros e eficientes. Neste sentido, são propostos, utilizados e analisados: um modelo de plano de negócios para incubadoras de empresas, um método de implantação do plano de negócios em incubadoras de empresas e um sistema de medida de desempenho de curto prazo para se avaliar o impacto que o plano de negócios causa na gestão destas organizações. A experiência desenvolvida junto às incubadoras de empresas paulistas, com a implantação do plano de negócios como ferramenta de gestão, usada pelos gerentes destas organizações no planejamento de suas ações, contribuiu para a melhoria nos seus índices de desempenho e tem servido de base aos seus principais mantenedores - SEBRAE-SP e FIESP - na condução do programa de incubadoras de empresas no Estado de São Paulo.Nowadays, the number of Brazilian business incubators has been growing as never. Being one of the main mechanisms to aid the beginner entrepreneurs, the actions developed by these incubators need to be very well planned, and evaluated with clear and efficient approaches. In this sense, this work has proposed, used, and analyzed: a business plan model for business incubators, a method to implement the business plan in business incubators, and a short-term performance measure system to evaluate the impact of the business plan in these organizations. The experience that was developed with the business incubators from São Paulo State, with the implementation of the business plan as an administrative tool, used by the managers of these organizations to the planning of their actions, has contributed to the improvement of their performance indexes and it has been used as reference to their main stakeholders - SEBRAE-SP and FIESP - for the conduction of the program of business incubators in the State of São Paulo.
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Cassel, Josefine, and Fredriksson Anna. "The Logic Behind Business Incubation for Creative and Technology-Based Startups : A Study of the Support Provided By Business Incubators to Startups With Different Business Logics." Thesis, Umeå universitet, Företagsekonomi, 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-185287.
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Small businesses are an important part of innovation, competitiveness and economic development. Support systems such as business incubators have emerged with the purpose of helping these startups develop. The startups which are in focus in this thesis operate in different industries, in technology-based industries where commercialization and growth is in focus, to creative industries which focus on developing individual talent and creativity. The characteristics and core of the businesses differ, giving them different business logics by which the startups operate. The business logic leads the startups to face different challenges, which the thesis considers to regard liabilities of smallness, liabilities of newness and liabilities of uniqueness as well as organizing. These variations give the startups differences in how they operate and hence, also a need for different types of support given by business incubators. Business incubator support is in the thesis categorized into three components of Networks, Infrastructure and Business Services, as suggested in a triad model of Carvalho & Galina (2015). As varying business logics makes a difference on what type of value startups produce, it is important to study the relationship between these logics and the support provided by an incubator. It is important in order to understand how incubators can adapt their support more effectively to help entrepreneurs overcome their challenges. The thesis purpose is to broaden the understanding of how business logics and challenges of startups adhere to the industry they are in, and how the support given by business incubators can help the businesses to overcome challenges associated with these business logics. The research design was qualitative, and data was collected by performing six semi-structured interviews with entrepreneurs within creative and technology-based industries, enrolled at business incubators with these specializations. The study results in a proposed model, giving extension to the original triad model by Carvalho & Galina (2015). In the proposed model, new dimensions of the support system as well as the nature of the startups’ business logics, and challenges are addressed. The proposed model and the study’s results may act as a guiding framework for future research in the field, aiming to gain a better understanding of the reality of startups with different business logics.
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Stein, Arne Ibo, and Winkel Rein te. "Sustainability-oriented incubators: nurturing our future heroes? : A single case study research." Thesis, Jönköping University, Internationella Handelshögskolan, 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hj:diva-53300.
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Background: Environmental problems are a worrying phenomenon, and there is a call for action. One way to face these problems lies in sustainable entrepreneurship. There is an increase in sustainability-oriented incubators supporting these sustainable entrepreneurs on their entrepreneurial journey, using various support systems. However, there is little research available about the support systems sustainability-oriented incubators offer, the importance of these support systems, and the influence of entrepreneurial stages. Purpose: With our study, we provide sustainability-oriented incubator managers with insights into the importance of different support systems, the frequency in which they are offered and the role of different entrepreneurial stages. This allows sustainability-oriented incubators to support their tenants better and, therefore, positively influence sustainable entrepreneurship. Method: A single case study method has been applied by using a mixed-method approach of qualitative semi-structured interviews and a quantitative questionnaire which was filled in prior to the interviews by the participants. In total, nine participants were interviewed, consisting of seven incubator tenants and two incubator managers. Conclusion: This research has found a high level of importance and frequency of business model support and market research support, irrespective of the different entrepreneurial stages. This implies a constant reiteration process from sustainable entrepreneurs, demanding a strong-intervention role from the sustainability-oriented incubator. Furthermore, this research has found the shortcomings in using the effectuation model for analysing entrepreneurial stages and suggests a different application.
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Akcomak, Ibrahim Semih. "Technology Development Centers In Turkey." Master's thesis, METU, 2003. http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/1075472/index.pdf.
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It is widely accepted that small and new firms are important in creating income and employment. Their flexible structure enables them to adapt quickly to changes in economic environment and technology. The main purpose of this thesis is to evaluate whether the Technology Development Centers (TEKMERs) established by the Small and Medium Size Industry Development Organization (KOSGEB) in Turkey encourage new firm creation in high-technology sectors and boost the performance of small and new firms both in terms of economic and technological aspects. Information on 48 on- and 41 off-incubator firms is gathered through face-to-face interviews to compare and contrast those that benefit from incubators with those that do not. The data set also covers information on 79 on- and 61 off-incubator founders. Our findings indicate that TEKMERs are important in supporting start-ups in their vulnerable stages and help them to survive. There are profound differences between on- and off-incubator firms regarding their economic performance, highly in favor of on-incubator firms, but the same cannot be put forward concerning technological performance. The claim that the founders of on-incubator firms are more educated is not supported by the data.
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Bain, Bridgette M. "Essay 1:IMF Lending and the Emerging Markets' Governance Structure. Essay 2: Specialization Constructs among Business Incubators." ScholarWorks@UNO, 2013. http://scholarworks.uno.edu/td/1608.
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The purpose of this paper is to observe and analyze whether the value system and political structure of a nation, gauged through its legal configuration, impacts its response to IMF debt and consequently impacts its GDP growth rates. This paper also analyzes whether involvement in the fund through a loan relationship affects the country’s real interest rate, inflation, exchange rate and import and export volume and whether this relationship is causal in that we can explain a nation’s loan relationship with the Fund through observance of the aforementioned variables. In this paper, we observe 34 emerging markets as defined by Dow Jones in 2010.
The general consensus of the literature is that participation in IMF loan programs retards the economic growth of developing economies. In light of this, the contribution of this paper is to illustrate that some of the slowed growth experienced by these countries seeking out IMF debt is explained by their value system and general attitude toward debt. To carry out a comparable analysis we segment and group the emerging markets based on their current credit status with the IMF (as of Oct 2012) as well as by the origin of their legal system, a measure we use to assess their value system with respect to creditor and debt protection laws. We will observe the growth rates that these countries’ economies experience categorized by their involvement with the Fund, the amount of their loan and whether they fully repaid their debt or are currently indebted to the Fund. We will also identify the size and frequency of the loan in order to observe the impact that these variables have on the delayed growth rates that they experience. Furthermore, we will examine the impact on their GDP growth rates, imports of goods and services, inflation, exchange rates and real interest rates. We expect to find that there is not a generic relationship between involvement in a loan relationship with the Fund and GDP growth rates. In other words, having a loan from the IMF does not directly result in delayed growth rates, contrary to popular belief. However, we hypothesize that the legal system of the borrowing countries is an explanatory variable in determining their growth rates, alongside their loan relationship with the Fund.
In addition, we expect to find empirical evidence that supports the claim that inappropriate and unmonitored involvement in the Fund can adversely affect emerging markets. Inappropriate and unmonitored involved is measured in this paper by the borrowers creditor and debtor protection laws. We aim to expand the current line of literature by analyzing whether a decline in economic growth prior to completion of an IMF loan program is a generic attribute of all participants or whether these traits are more pronounced in countries with a more unmonitored business and economic legal system.
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Elmansori, E. "Fostering innovation and entrepreneurship in Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) through business incubators in the Arab world." Thesis, Nottingham Trent University, 2014. http://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/135/.
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The Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) contribution to innovation and economic growth is part of the economic system, and in the light of this, SMEs policies are reviewed by countries throughout the world. In the Arab countries, which are in transition such as in particular, Egypt, Tunisia, Syria, Yemen and Libya, the SME policy rationale is strikingly consistent in its coherence and consideration of other social and economic issues. SMEs provide employment opportunities for the elderly, youth and women; the creation of new lifestyles and support the development of new forms of work organisation; new working arrangements, fostering innovation and entrepreneurship. Business incubation facilitates the development and growth of start-up companies by providing entrepreneurs with resources and services. Incubator management usually develops these services which are offered by its wide network of contacts. Therefore, the aim of this research to contribute to general knowledge about the economic growth and development impacts of business incubators, thereby assisting governments and policymakers in establishing environments that would facilitate entrepreneurship and national development. To meet this aim, both qualitative and quantitative research approaches were used. This exploratory research has used snowball sampling method, 91 responses were obtained out of the 400 questionnaires distributed to SMEs in Libya, leading to a response rate of 22.75%. In addition, 5 incubation units in Jordan and 4 in the United Arab Emirates were examined using questionnaires. Finally, interviews with 12 of Arab experts in this field were also conducted to understand how to establish and implement business incubation programmes. The results of this research show that businesses that have been through an incubator programme are far more likely to succeed in the long term. The research concluded by providing governments with guidelines for using incubators to foster technology transfer and commercialisation, which contributes to entrepreneurship and economic development in developing countries and other Arab countries, with particular consideration in Libya.
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Barata, João Pedro Mendes. "A relevância do marketing empreendedor nas empresas instaladas em incubadoras." Master's thesis, Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestão, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/10400.5/10266.
Full textAbstract:
Mestrado em Ciências EmpresariaisEsta tese fala sobre empreendedorismo, incubadoras universitárias, marketing e performance
This thesis talks about entrepreneurship, university incubators, marketing and performance.
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Booth-Jones, Laurene. "Assesssing small business training programme effectiveness in an incubator setting and beyond." Thesis, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/10948/d1014074.
Full textAbstract:
The focus on entrepreneurs as drivers of the economies of nations has catapulted them into the forefront of the local and international marketplace. This has led to a demand for entrepreneurial education and training resulting in a plethora of different and often divergent views. One commonality that has emerged is that entrepreneurship can be taught; although it cannot be taught in conventional and traditional ways. It requires a move from traditional education and training to more enterprising participative and supportive forms of business development. It requires investments of time, resources and support. Incubators are facilities that are engaged with entrepreneurs and offer a variety of support including education and training. This study has assessed the effectiveness of training offered by the Seda Nelson Mandela Bay ICT incubator. There has been limited research undertaken on entrepreneurial education and training in an incubator setting. This study followed the qualitative paradigm. The sample comprised of 10 small businesses at the Seda Nelson Mandela Bay ICT incubator. Empirical data was obtained by interviewing the owners of the small businesses using an interview schedule. Issues such as the most effective training programme, content that it contained, methodology used and quality of the facilitator and applicability of the training programme were explored. The study found that the small businesses were opportunity driven rather than necessity driven and that the incubator served as a bridging facility in moving the businesses from the informal sector to the formal sector. The content of the training programmes was found to be effective when a mix of both theoretical and practical is offered especially with an emphasis on the underlying entrepreneurial themes of confidence, persistence and uncertainty and so on. It also found that training programmes should be linked to the life cycle of the business and address the specific needs of the small business owner. The start-up phase requires very specific training. Most of the facilitators were found to be experienced and empathetic. However, only a few were using a wider range of preferred learning styles favoured by entrepreneurs such as role playing, simulation, brainstorming and problem-solving techniques. The study also found that when generic training programmes are offered there was less recall on the part of the trainees. The management team of the incubator is an important determinant of the success of the incubatees and it is recommended that they need to be well versed in their sector and have good networking skills. There is a strong link between the theoretical and the practical content of training programmes especially where the emphasis is more on the practical content. It is recommended that facilitators pay attention to their relationship with trainees as it is a critical success factor in the training programme. Training programmes offered over a period of time add more value to the incubatee. This might be because of the mentoring and counselling that is available after each training module is completed. Finally, more research needs to be undertaken on the quality and effectiveness of training programmes offered by incubators to small businesses.
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Dames, Ricardo Shane. "Best practices to create an enabling environment for SME incubation in South Africa." Thesis, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/10948/d1015031.
Full textAbstract:
The humble beginnings of business incubators date back to the 1970s in the USA and United Kingdom, where abandoned industrial buildings were converted to rent out to small businesses. South Africa (SA) was first introduced to business incubation in the 1980s when the Small Business Development Corporation (SBDC) established a number of business ‘hives’ and provided business space to entrepreneurs to operate their businesses. In their most basic form, business incubators provide a safe and nurturing environment for entrepreneurs to establish their small businesses. While in incubation, the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are supported with a number of services which assist their growth and development until they are able to exit the incubator as sustainable and viable businesses. Global incubator models have matured significantly, and now include assisting with business idea generation, accelerating business start-ups and commercialisation processes, and identifying high-growth orientated SMEs to assist them with gaining market access. The establishment of business incubators was a government-driven initiative, and more than 33 SME incubators exist in SA. Most of the incubators are government-funded, and have focused on the establishment and growth of SMEs to act as a catalyst to promote economic development and alleviate socio-economic challenges such as unemployment and poverty. Despite these noble objectives, incubation in SA has not been fully utilised, and a high SME failure rate still prevails in the country. One of the reasons for SME failure may be ascribed to the lack of an enabling SME incubation environment in SA. When compared to other developing countries such as Brazil with as many as 400 incubators, it is clear that the SA incubation industry still needs further development. The purpose of this study therefore was to ascertain the best practices of global business incubators in both developed and developing countries, and how SA incubators could learn from these best practices to create a more conducive and enabling SME incubation environment. Background literature on business incubation with a specific focus on best practices in world incubators in both developed and developing countries, was reviewed. Some of the literature reviewed included Aernoudt (2004), Buys and Mbewana (2007) and Chandra (2009). From the literature review, four main best practice areas were identified, namely strategic focus, sources of funding, incubator services, and the role of government. The study followed a qualitative approach, and an interview schedule was developed to seek the perceptions of incubator managers on how the four identified best practices can be utilised to create an enabling SA incubation environment. A survey was conducted by interviewing 14 incubator managers (twelve government and two private) in SA. Data was collected over a six-month period, using face-to-face and telephonic interviews. Data was analysed using the content analysis, constant comparison, grounded theory and case study methods. The biographical profiles of the incubator managers and incubators were presented in case studies. An initial analysis was made to identify themes and sub themes within the four best practices explored, using the constant comparison method. Thereafter a provincial comparative analysis was made, as well as a comparison of government funded versus privately funded incubators. The findings suggested that there is a relatively high turnover in incubator management, and that they often do not have incubator management experience. A provincial comparison of SA incubators revealed that their strategic focuses are greatly influenced by the industry prevailing in the various provinces. All SA incubators provide pre- and post incubation services, but few are utilising virtual incubation. Most SA incubators are government-funded, and some use a hybrid funding model. It was evident that most SA incubators are aware of government policies and programmes available to assist them on local, provincial and national levels. A comparison of the best practices of two developing countries and three developed countries, as well as suggestions made by SA incubator managers indicated that SA has indeed followed best practices from both developing and developed countries, but there are areas of non-alignment which provide scope for improvement, to create a more conducive and enabling incubation environment. This study recommends that incubators should have an entrepreneurial focus, and reposition and align their strategic focus with government policies and instruments. SA incubators must pursue opportunities for virtual incubation as well as linkages with academic institutions, in order to offer value-added services such as research, development and commercialisation of the product ideas. Incubators in SA must pursue a hybrid funding model with a combination of government and private funding, and generate some or their own income. With regard to the role of government, it is recommended that the roll-out of more industry-specific incubators be privatised, and that an overseeing body for incubation be established.
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Nilsson, Frida, and Karin Sundbeck. "Understanding influential factors in the choice of the selection process : A neglected aspect of the research literature on business incubators." Thesis, KTH, Skolan för industriell teknik och management (ITM), 2019. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-264197.
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The purpose of this study is to enhance the understanding of what factors influence the choice of the selection process in government-funded business incubators. The study was conducted as an abductive multiple case-study of selection processes in Swedish government-funded business incubators. Our findings are summarized in a framework illustrating that owners and financiers stipulate important pre-conditions for the opportunities business incubators have in designing and implementing a certain selection process through their impact on the incubator goal and target group, and subsequently the choice of criteria. The regional context (local economics, level of entrepreneurial activity, collaborations and brand awareness) also stipulate a precondition for the incubator’s choice of the selection process by affecting the inflow of business ideas and therefore the pool of potential candidates available to the incubator. The amount and quality of the inflow mainly reflects in the rigorousness or flexibility in the application criteria. The design of the process, and thus the practices included, is highly influenced by the orientation of managers and operative staff in the incubator, conditioned upon available resources (organizational capabilities and constraints), and influenced by best practices, investor objectives, and macro trends. The study provides implications for research on selection processes in business incubators by highlighting that prior research has had a limited perspective of selection by primarily focusing on criteria and the flexibility and rigorousness in applying these, thus disregarding other practices and prevailing selection as an event rather than a process. Furthermore, we pinpoint several factors affecting the choice of the selection process, not previously discussed in the research literature. The emerging framework may also be used by stakeholders in order to understand how different factors impact the selection process and identify areas that are weak and need to be improved.Syftet med denna studie är att förbättra förståelsen för vilka faktorer som påverkar valet av urvalsprocess i offentligt finansierade företagsinkubatorer. Studien har en abduktiv ansats och genomfördes som en multipel fallstudie av urvalsprocesser i svenska företagsinkubatorer. Resultaten från studien presenteras i ett teoretiskt ramverk som betonar att ägare och finansiärer utgör viktiga förutsättningar för inkubatorns möjligheter att utforma processen genom deras inverkan på mål och målgrupp. Mål och målgrupp återspeglas främst i valet av kriterier, men kan ha en indirekt påverkan även på det sätt som inkubatorerna arbetar för att uppfylla målen. Den regionala kontexten utgör också en viktig förutsättning för inkubatorers möjligheter genom dess påverkan på inflödet av affärsidéer och därmed poolen av potentiella kandidater som är tillgängliga för inkubatorn. Mängden och kvaliteten på inflödet påverkar i huvudsak huruvida tillämpningen av kriterier är rigorös eller flexibel. Utformningen av processen påverkas i stor utsträckning av den operativa personalens erfarenheter och gemensamma organisatoriska lärande i inkubatorn. Sådant inflytande kan dock till viss del vara begränsat av de resurser i form av medel, tid och personal som finns i inkubatorn. Vi finner även att rådande trender inom jämställdhet och hållbarhet, samt best practices och investerar-objektiv har inflytande på hur inkubatorer väljer att utforma urvalsprocessen. Studien bidrar till forskningen om urvalsprocesser i företagsinkubatorer genom att belysa att tidigare forskning har haft ett begränsat perspektiv på urval genom att enbart fokusera på kriterier samt flexibilitet och rigiditet vid tillämpningen av dessa och därmed bortse från övriga selektionspraxis. För att kunna förstå och förbättra urvalsprocessen bör ett bredare perspektiv på urval inkorporeras i forskningslitteraturen, där urval förstås som en process snarare än ett isolerat skeende. Vidare identifierar vi flera faktorer som påverkar valet av urvalsprocessen, men som inte tidigare diskuterats i forskningslitteraturen. Vårt ramverk kan också stödja olika intressenter att identifiera styrkor och svagheter i det ekosystem de verkar inom såväl som deras egen inverkan på urvalsprocessen.
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Petersen, Winifred. "Developing an incubation strategy for Oudtshoorn." Thesis, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/10948/1385.
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Business incubators, as recognised in their contemporary form, have a history dating back to the 1970s in the United Kingdom and the USA. South Africa is no stranger to this concept of business incubation either: Since the 1980s the Small Business Development Corporation (SBDC) operated business “hives” as clusters of small enterprises. Business incubators are support facilities that empower and stimulate small-entrepreneurial businesses – from the financially vulnerable start-up period, until the time that the fledgling company is ready to operate more autonomously. Business incubators provide, as part of their services, affordable space, financial-management services, sound business advice and other development services. Incubation stimulates the development of small-entrepreneurial businesses and, to this end, helps stimulate the economy. Thus, for South Africa to invest in the development of small growing businesses, is to invest directly in its larger economy and to address its own development challenges like employment-creation, income-generation and the alleviation of poverty. It is in this context that this study discusses the development challenges of one of the rural areas in South Africa, Oudtshoorn, and aims to provide a viable strategy of business incubation for this area, in anticipation that in future lessons can be drawn from this and applied to other rural areas. Oudtshoorn is a town in the Klein Karoo, in the Western Cape Province of South Africa. The strongest sectors in Oudtshoorn’s economy are agriculture and tourism. These two sectors should provide the basis for an empowering business incubator to strengthen and enhance smaller businesses in the town. The study focuses on the development challenges of South Africa and, in particular, a rural town such as Oudtshoorn, the importance of investing in small entrepreneurial businesses so as to strengthen the country’s economy. the nature an significance of a business-incubation strategy for the Oudtshoorn area. Background literature on South Africa’s development challenges was collated as well as information gathered on small-business support and incubation in particular. Literature was retrieved from local institutions as well as national and international sources. Case studies of incubators in South Africa and in other countries were included to enhance the understanding of the importance of business incubation. In addition, the researcher’s close networks with the Oudtshoorn municipality, the local Red Door office and the different role-players in the small-business support sphere allowed for an in-depth assessment of support for such an incubation project and the critical obstacles it may encounter en route.
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Bäck, Johannes, and Frida Ullberg. "Business Developers in the 21st [Sustainable] Century : A comparative case study of how and why Swedish business developers implement sustainability in their cooperation with start-ups." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Företagsekonomiska institutionen, 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-447475.
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This paper investigates the relationship between business developers and start-ups in the field of sustainability. More specifically, the study analyzes how and why Swedish business developers, in terms of incubators, financiers, and advisors, implement sustainability in their cooperation with start-ups. Each year, thousands of businesses are founded which need support in various ways, it could be anything from advising to financial help. Ever since the UN launched Agenda 2030 and the Government of Sweden launched its new climate policy, it is clear that everyone needs to do something to help the world towards a better future. This study is based on qualitative interviews with six different business developers and applies the theories: stakeholder and shareholder theory, triple bottom line, creating shared value, green growth, and open innovation. The result showed that how business developers implement sustainability in their cooperation with start-ups varies, but is based on economic, social, and environmental sustainability. Some developers work more actively than others, but it is done through an exchange of knowledge between business developers and start-ups. Further, why business developers use sustainability is either as a tool to gain a competitive advantage and help start-ups grow or to increase their profits.