Experiencias regionales en Viveros de Empresas

RESUMEN En una situación económica caracterizada por una destrucción de empleo, se hace necesario evaluar medidas alternativas que posibiliten mejoras en el mercado de trabajo. El emprendimiento se configura como una salida laboral, pero para ello es necesario contar con los instrumentos necesarios que posibiliten el desarrollo y posterior consolidación de las nuevas iniciativas empresariales. El establecimiento de viveros de empresa es una de las medidas que se vienen aplicando a nivel autonómico para potenciar la actividad emprendedora. El objetivo de este artículo es describir la situación de los viveros de empresas a nivel regional, centrando el estudio en la experiencia de tres comunidades autónomas: Cataluña, Galicia y Madrid, para determinar las características básicas de este tipo de instalaciones y si existen diferencias a nivel regional entre los modelos de viveros implantados. ABSTRACT The aim of this paper is to analyse, from a descriptive perspective, the experience of business incubators at a regional level, through the study of these regional and local development tools in the regions of Catalonia, Galicia and Madrid. The still fragile economic situation in Spain has caused a significant loss of employment, complicating the creation of new business initiatives. In this scenario, entrepreneurship has become a good alternative. However, entrepreneurship is not easy, since it is necessary to use the most appropriate tools to support this activity. Business incubators are one of the possible options to encourage the creation of new companies. Business incubators ensure the generation of new initiatives and jobs, with high rates of business survival. These positive effects have caused the significant development of these facilities in Europe and the US. Spain has not been immune to this process. In 2012 there were 299 business incubation centres in our country, although with a regional heterogeneous development. Catalonia (51), Andalusia (40), Madrid and Valencia (24) and Galicia (22) are the five regions in Spain which have been more inclined to develop these initiatives. Considering this, in this article we analyse the situation of business incubators in three Autonomous Communities: Catalonia, Madrid and Galicia. The reason for selecting these three experiences is twofold. First, it seeks to make a comparison, from a descriptive perspective, between the Catalan model, which is certainly the most developed in Spain, with the cases of Madrid and Galicia, because in these two cases a very important development of new facilities has taken place in recent years. On the other hand, for these three cases, it has been possible to collect information about the main indicators of business incubators, which has made a regional comparison possible. To do this we have tried to identify the key variables that affect the management, contribution, resources and characteristics of business incubators and link the results to the criteria for admission to the facility, equipment, supply of services and spaces, size, orientation, etc. Comparing the results it is revealed, despite the statistical limitations, that Catalonia has more business incubators than Galicia and Madrid together, although business incubators in the three regions have increased considerably since 1992. The geographical distribution of business incubators differ markedly. It can be noted that Catalonia has a lower concentration, being present in fewer municipalities than in Madrid, although in the latter case there is a strong polarization around the capital. As for the Galician case, business incubators are located mainly along the coast and in the inland largest towns. Catalonia, having more business incubators, is more capable of accommodating businesses (915) than Madrid (725) or Galicia (390). The admission criteria are also heterogeneous. Galicia has stricter conditions than Catalonia and Madrid, no doubt due to the small size of the facilities. As the number of companies created depends on the number of business incubators capacity use and turnover, this indicator is significantly higher in Catalonia than in Galicia and Madrid. From the information obtained the incubators rely on public support both for its operation and for daily management. However, less dependence on public funds is seen in the premises of Catalonia and Madrid, as opposed to Galicia, which depends more on public financing. What is common to the three of them is the offer of space at a well below-market price and also in the characteristics of the space the three of them offer. Regarding the profile of entrepreneurs in the three cases analysed, many of them have a university degree. For example, 83% of Galician business incubators have college degrees. Regional differences are not observed as for the age of the entrepreneur, who is around 35 years old. As for the distribution of men and women, there are no significant differences, they are predominantly men. No great differences are observed in relation to the type of activity undertaken by the entrepreneurs. While Catalonia has many companies related to ICT, in Galicia 72% of the initiatives are professional and scientific activities. As it is stated in this article, from the three case studies, business incubators make the creation of new jobs and businesses possible. However, the new economic reality requires changes in the mission of business incubators, which should go beyond the traditional model based on only offering space and basic services. The future of these facilities passes necessarily by way of offering an entrepreneurial full service, becoming a meeting point for entrepreneurs who enable the development of new business initiatives.