IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/techno/v82-83y2019ip25-34.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Do business incubators really enhance entrepreneurial growth? Evidence from a large sample of innovative Italian start-ups

Author

Listed:
  • Lukeš, Martin
  • Longo, Maria Cristina
  • Zouhar, Jan

Abstract

Innovative start-ups are often considered to be a key source of innovation and job creation. As such they are the subject of several types of supportive public policies. This study examines the short-term and long-term effects of business incubators on the performance of innovative start-ups in terms of sales revenues and job creation. A large sample of N = 2544 innovative Italian start-ups, of which 606 were incubated, was followed over a period of up to six years. Tobit and Poisson regressions and propensity-score matching analyses point towards a significant negative effect of incubator tenancy on sales revenues and no significant effect of incubation on job creation. Findings also suggest that the initially negative effect of incubation on sales revenues turns into a positive effect in the long term. The effects of incubator characteristics, in terms of ownership, certification, and size on the growth of tenant start-ups were further analysed, but these effects were found to be negligible. The study contributes to the literature on the evidence-based evaluation of business incubation performance. It suggests that public policy makers should lower their expectations regarding the numbers of new jobs created by business incubation support.

Suggested Citation

  • Lukeš, Martin & Longo, Maria Cristina & Zouhar, Jan, 2019. "Do business incubators really enhance entrepreneurial growth? Evidence from a large sample of innovative Italian start-ups," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 82, pages 25-34.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:techno:v:82-83:y:2019:i::p:25-34
    DOI: 10.1016/j.technovation.2018.07.008
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0166497218301627
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.technovation.2018.07.008?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Storey, D. J. & Tether, B. S., 1998. "New technology-based firms in the European union: an introduction," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 26(9), pages 933-946, April.
    2. Ron Boschma & Koen Frenken, 2011. "The emerging empirics of evolutionary economic geography," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 11(2), pages 295-307, March.
    3. Soetanto, Danny & Jack, Sarah, 2016. "The impact of university-based incubation support on the innovation strategy of academic spin-offs," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 50, pages 25-40.
    4. Bollingtoft, Anne & Ulhoi, John P., 2005. "The networked business incubator--leveraging entrepreneurial agency?," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 20(2), pages 265-290, March.
    5. Alex Coad & Sven-Olov Daunfeldt & Werner Hölzl & Dan Johansson & Paul Nightingale, 2014. "High-growth firms: introduction to the special section," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 23(1), pages 91-112, February.
    6. Colombo, Massimo G. & Grilli, Luca, 2005. "Start-up size: The role of external financing," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 88(2), pages 243-250, August.
    7. Sean Hackett & David Dilts, 2008. "Inside the black box of business incubation: Study B—scale assessment, model refinement, and incubation outcomes," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 33(5), pages 439-471, October.
    8. Phillip Phan & Donald S. Siegel & Mike Wright, 2016. "Science Parks and Incubators: Observations, Synthesis and Future Research," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Phillip H Phan & Sarfraz A Mian & Wadid Lamine (ed.), TECHNOLOGY ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND BUSINESS INCUBATION Theory • Practice • Lessons Learned, chapter 9, pages 249-272, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    9. Sean M. Hackett & David M. Dilts, 2004. "A Systematic Review of Business Incubation Research," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 29(1), pages 55-82, January.
    10. Richard Ferguson & Christer Olofsson, 2004. "Science Parks and the Development of NTBFs-- Location, Survival and Growth," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 29(1), pages 5-17, January.
    11. Magnus Henrekson & Dan Johansson, 2010. "Gazelles as job creators: a survey and interpretation of the evidence," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 35(2), pages 227-244, September.
    12. Barbero, José L. & Casillas, José C. & Ramos, Alicia & Guitar, Susana, 2012. "Revisiting incubation performance," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 79(5), pages 888-902.
    13. Rothaermel, Frank T. & Thursby, Marie, 2005. "Incubator firm failure or graduation?: The role of university linkages," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(7), pages 1076-1090, September.
    14. Sylvain Weber, 2010. "bacon: An effective way to detect outliers in multivariate data using Stata (and Mata)," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 10(3), pages 331-338, September.
    15. Paul Westhead & David Storey, 1997. "Financial constraints on the growth of high technology small firms in the United Kingdom," Applied Financial Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 7(2), pages 197-201.
    16. Sarfraz Mian & Wadid Lamine & Alain Fayolle, 2016. "Technology Business Incubation: An overview of the state of knowledge," Post-Print hal-02014389, HAL.
    17. Alberto Abadie & Guido W. Imbens, 2016. "Matching on the Estimated Propensity Score," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 84, pages 781-807, March.
    18. Siegel, Donald S & Westhead, Paul & Wright, Mike, 2003. "Science Parks and the Performance of New Technology-Based Firms: A Review of Recent U.K. Evidence and an Agenda for Future Research," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 20(2), pages 177-184, March.
    19. Albena Pergelova & Fernando Angulo-Ruiz, 2014. "The impact of government financial support on the performance of new firms: the role of competitive advantage as an intermediate outcome," Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(9-10), pages 663-705, December.
    20. Jeffrey M Wooldridge, 2010. "Econometric Analysis of Cross Section and Panel Data," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 2, volume 1, number 0262232588, December.
    21. Josh Lerner, 2010. "The future of public efforts to boost entrepreneurship and venture capital," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 35(3), pages 255-264, October.
    22. Colombo, Massimo G. & Delmastro, Marco, 2002. "How effective are technology incubators?: Evidence from Italy," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 31(7), pages 1103-1122, September.
    23. Mian, Sarfraz & Lamine, Wadid & Fayolle, Alain, 2016. "Technology Business Incubation: An overview of the state of knowledge," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 50, pages 1-12.
    24. Autio, Erkko & Rannikko, Heikki, 2016. "Retaining winners: Can policy boost high-growth entrepreneurship?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(1), pages 42-55.
    25. repec:prg:jnlpep:v:2016:y:2016:i:1:id:534:p:1-19 is not listed on IDEAS
    26. Ensley, Michael D. & Hmieleski, Keith M., 2005. "A comparative study of new venture top management team composition, dynamics and performance between university-based and independent start-ups," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(7), pages 1091-1105, September.
    27. John Haltiwanger & Ron S. Jarmin & Javier Miranda, 2013. "Who Creates Jobs? Small versus Large versus Young," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 95(2), pages 347-361, May.
    28. Mariagrazia Squicciarini, 2009. "Science parks: seedbeds of innovation? A duration analysis of firms’ patenting activity," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 32(2), pages 169-190, February.
    29. Colin Mason & Ross Brown, 2013. "Creating good public policy to support high-growth firms," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 40(2), pages 211-225, February.
    30. Eric Stokan & Lyke Thompson & Robert J. Mahu, 2015. "Testing the Differential Effect of Business Incubators on Firm Growth," Economic Development Quarterly, , vol. 29(4), pages 317-327, November.
    31. Sarfraz Mian & Wadid Lamine & Alain Fayolle, 2016. "Technology Business Incubation : An overview of the state of knowledge," Post-Print hal-02313371, HAL.
    32. Michael Schwartz, 2009. "Beyond incubation: an analysis of firm survival and exit dynamics in the post-graduation period," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 34(4), pages 403-421, August.
    33. Pauwels, Charlotte & Clarysse, Bart & Wright, Mike & Van Hove, Jonas, 2016. "Understanding a new generation incubation model: The accelerator," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 50, pages 13-24.
    34. repec:prg:jnlpep:v:preprint:id:534:p:1-19 is not listed on IDEAS
    35. Billor, Nedret & Hadi, Ali S. & Velleman, Paul F., 2000. "BACON: blocked adaptive computationally efficient outlier nominators," Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 34(3), pages 279-298, September.
    36. Maura McAdam & Susan Marlow, 2011. "Sense and sensibility: The role of business incubator client advisors in assisting high-technology entrepreneurs to make sense of investment readiness status," Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(7-8), pages 449-468, September.
    37. Maximilian Zedtwitz & Rosa Grimaldi, 2006. "Are Service Profiles Incubator-Specific? Results from an Empirical Investigation in Italy," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 31(4), pages 459-468, July.
    38. Paul Westhead & Stephen Batstone, 1998. "Independent Technology-based Firms: The Perceived Benefits of a Science Park Location," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 35(12), pages 2197-2219, December.
    39. Vásquez-Urriago, Ángela Rocío & Barge-Gil, Andrés & Modrego Rico, Aurelia, 2016. "Science and Technology Parks and cooperation for innovation: Empirical evidence from Spain," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(1), pages 137-147.
    40. Storey, D. J. & Tether, B. S., 1998. "Public policy measures to support new technology-based firms in the European Union," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 26(9), pages 1037-1057, April.
    41. Massimo Colombo & Annalisa Croce & Samuele Murtinu, 2014. "Ownership structure, horizontal agency costs and the performance of high-tech entrepreneurial firms," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 42(2), pages 265-282, February.
    42. Scott Shane, 2009. "Why encouraging more people to become entrepreneurs is bad public policy," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 33(2), pages 141-149, August.
    43. Martin Lukeš & Jan Zouhar, 2016. "The Causes of Early-Stage Entrepreneurial Discontinuance," Prague Economic Papers, Prague University of Economics and Business, vol. 2016(1), pages 19-36.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Li Xiao & David North, 2017. "The graduation performance of technology business incubators in China’s three tier cities: the role of incubator funding, technical support, and entrepreneurial mentoring," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 42(3), pages 615-634, June.
    2. Laura Lecluyse & Mirjam Knockaert & André Spithoven, 2019. "The contribution of science parks: a literature review and future research agenda," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 44(2), pages 559-595, April.
    3. Brian J. Bergman & Jeffery S. McMullen, 2022. "Helping Entrepreneurs Help Themselves: A Review and Relational Research Agenda on Entrepreneurial Support Organizations," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 46(3), pages 688-728, May.
    4. van Weele, Marijn & van Rijnsoever, Frank J. & Nauta, Frans, 2017. "You can't always get what you want: How entrepreneur's perceived resource needs affect the incubator's assertiveness," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 18-33.
    5. J. Piet Hausberg & Sabrina Korreck, 2020. "Business incubators and accelerators: a co-citation analysis-based, systematic literature review," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 45(1), pages 151-176, February.
    6. Manuel Octavio Del Campo Villares & Vanessa Miguéns-Refojo & Francisco Jesús Ferreiro-Seoane, 2020. "Business Survival and the Influence of Innovation on Entrepreneurs in Business Incubators," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(15), pages 1-20, July.
    7. Schwartz, Michael & Göthner, Maximilian, 2009. "A Novel Approach to Incubator Evaluations: The PROMETHEE Outranking Procedures," IWH Discussion Papers 1/2009, Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH).
    8. Sansone, Giuliano & Andreotti, Pietro & Colombelli, Alessandra & Landoni, Paolo, 2020. "Are social incubators different from other incubators? Evidence from Italy," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    9. Mian, Sarfraz & Lamine, Wadid & Fayolle, Alain, 2016. "Technology Business Incubation: An overview of the state of knowledge," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 50, pages 1-12.
    10. Schwartz, Michael, 2010. "A Control Group Study of Incubators’ Impact to Promote Firm Survival," IWH Discussion Papers 11/2010, Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH).
    11. Isabel Diez-Vial & Angeles Montoro-Sanchez, 2017. "Research evolution in science parks and incubators: foundations and new trends," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 110(3), pages 1243-1272, March.
    12. José Barbero & José Casillas & Mike Wright & Alicia Ramos Garcia, 2014. "Do different types of incubators produce different types of innovations?," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 39(2), pages 151-168, April.
    13. Del Sarto, Nicola & Isabelle, Diane A. & Di Minin, Alberto, 2020. "The role of accelerators in firm survival: An fsQCA analysis of Italian startups," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 90.
    14. Chan, Yolande E. & Krishnamurthy, Rashmi & Sadreddin, Arman, 2022. "Digitally-enabled university incubation processes," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 118(C).
    15. Margarida Madaleno & Max Nathan & Henry Overman & Sevrin Waights, 2022. "Incubators, accelerators and urban economic development," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 59(2), pages 281-300, February.
    16. Han, Shaojie & Su, Jingqin & Lyu, Yibo & Liu, Qing, 2022. "How do business incubators govern incubation relationships with different new ventures?," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 116(C).
    17. Albahari, Alberto & Pérez-Canto, Salvador & Barge-Gil, Andrés & Modrego, Aurelia, 2017. "Technology Parks versus Science Parks: Does the university make the difference?," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 13-28.
    18. Michael Schwartz, 2013. "A control group study of incubators’ impact to promote firm survival," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 38(3), pages 302-331, June.
    19. Chenghua Guan & Ye Fan, 2020. "The Impact of Social Networks on the Operating Efficiency of Chinese Technology Business Incubators," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-23, March.
    20. T. Theeranattapong & D. Pickernell & C. Simms, 2021. "Systematic literature review paper: the regional innovation system-university-science park nexus," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 46(6), pages 2017-2050, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:techno:v:82-83:y:2019:i::p:25-34. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/01664972 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.