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Exploring docility: A behavioral approach to interventions in business incubation

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  • Nair, Sujith
  • Blomquist, Tomas

Abstract

The business incubation process evolves through coach-incubatee interactions rather than merely institutional intervention. We contribute to a behavioral understanding of this process by exploring the determinants and expression of docility, a fundamental human behavior. Our findings suggest that business coaches’ perceptions of stakeholder value creation needs and their experience of incubatees’ proactive behavior are essential determinants of coaching behavior. These behavioral determinants lead coaches to place idiosyncratic expectations on and become responsive to incubatees, and this is reflected in the range of their interventions in new venture creation. From a behavioral perspective, the outcome of coaches’ interventions is a shared understanding of how to navigate the ambiguous and uncertain aspects of new venturing. Adopting a behavioral approach thus helps us to reframe business incubation—previously regarded to be a structured process—as a flexible process, more accurately capturing its role in facilitating the highly uncertain process of new venture creation.

Suggested Citation

  • Nair, Sujith & Blomquist, Tomas, 2021. "Exploring docility: A behavioral approach to interventions in business incubation," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(7).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:respol:v:50:y:2021:i:7:s0048733321000779
    DOI: 10.1016/j.respol.2021.104274
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    Cited by:

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    2. Wissal Affes & Habib Affes, 2024. "Human Capital, Social Capital and Business Model Design: Empirical Evidence of Tunisian Firms," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 15(1), pages 4829-4857, March.
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    4. Amba Maria Erkelens & Neil Aaron Thompson & Dominic Chalmers, 2024. "The dynamic construction of an incubation context: a practice theory perspective," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 62(2), pages 583-605, February.
    5. Amir Hossein Azadnia & Simon Stephens & Pezhman Ghadimi & George Onofrei, 2022. "A comprehensive performance measurement framework for business incubation centres: Empirical evidence in an Irish context," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(5), pages 2437-2455, July.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Business incubation; Coaching behavior; Docility; New venture creation; Startups;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D90 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - General
    • M13 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Administration - - - New Firms; Startups
    • O32 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Management of Technological Innovation and R&D

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