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Business Incubators: Effective Infrastructures or Waste of Public Money? Looking for a Theoretical Framework, Guidelines and Criteria

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  • Ernesto Tavoletti

Abstract

There is a wide literature about business incubators (BIs), especially about successful cases in high tech and knowledge intensive industries. Despite that, there is neither a viable integrative theory of effective business incubation nor clear guidelines about the preconditions for establishing BIs and their management. Such theory and guidelines are urgently needed because there is increasing evidence in the literature that, despite many successful cases and public policies supporting business incubation, most of BIs are not successful at all and serious doubts have emerged about the general effectiveness of business incubation and the advisability of investing public money in it. Based on a systematic literature review of the poor and scattered theoretical knowledge of effective business incubation, general principles are proposed to decide when a BI should be established and what it should do to be effective. The research is limited to non-profit BIs whose main goal is regional economic development as they represent the overwhelming majority of operating BIs. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2013

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  • Ernesto Tavoletti, 2013. "Business Incubators: Effective Infrastructures or Waste of Public Money? Looking for a Theoretical Framework, Guidelines and Criteria," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 4(4), pages 423-443, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:jknowl:v:4:y:2013:i:4:p:423-443
    DOI: 10.1007/s13132-012-0090-y
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. 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.
    2. Photchanaphisut Pattanasak & Tanyanuparb Anantana & Boontarika Paphawasit & Ratapol Wudhikarn, 2022. "Critical Factors and Performance Measurement of Business Incubators: A Systematic Literature Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(8), pages 1-39, April.
    3. Bibeau, Jean & Meilleur, Roxane & St-Jean, Étienne, 2024. "To formalize, or not to formalize, business incubators’ networks: That is not the question," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 130(C).
    4. Xiaohong Xian & Xiang Zhang & Zongyi Zhang & Stavros Sindakis & Sakshi Aggarwal, 2024. "Examining the Impact of Idiosyncratic Risk on Corporate Cash Holdings: Evidence from China," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 15(2), pages 5151-5173, June.
    5. Mingfeng Tang & Hao Huang & Grace Walsh & Maribel Guerrero, 2023. "The impact of entrepreneurial overconfidence on incubator effectiveness," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 48(1), pages 416-440, February.
    6. Soetanto, Danny & van Geenhuizen, Marina, 2019. "Life after incubation: The impact of entrepreneurial universities on the long-term performance of their spin-offs," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 263-276.
    7. Tali Hadasa Blank, 2021. "When incubator resources are crucial: survival chances of student startups operating in an academic incubator," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 46(6), pages 1845-1868, December.
    8. Nasser Al‐Baimani & Nick Clifton & Eleri Jones & Rhiannon Pugh, 2021. "Applying the ecosystem model in a new context? The case of business incubation in Oman," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(2), pages 663-686, June.
    9. Frank J. Van Rijnsoever & Marijn A. Van Weele & Chris P. Eveleens, 2017. "Network brokers or hit makers? Analyzing the influence of incubation on start-up investments," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 13(2), pages 605-629, June.
    10. Kamran Ahmed Siddiqui & Mohammad Emad Al-Shaikh & Ishtiaq Ahmed Bajwa & Abdulaziz Al-Subaie, 2021. "Identifying critical success factors for university business incubators in Saudi Arabia," Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Issues, VsI Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Center, vol. 8(3), pages 267-279, March.
    11. Ernesto Tavoletti & Corrado Cerruti, 2012. "Business Incubation: The Case of the European Space Agency," DSI Essays Series, DSI - Dipartimento di Studi sull'Impresa, vol. 29.
    12. Ceaușu Ioana & Marquardt Katrin & Irmer Sven-Joachim & Gotesman Elisa, 2017. "Factors influencing performance within startup assistance organizations," Proceedings of the International Conference on Business Excellence, Sciendo, vol. 11(1), pages 264-275, July.
    13. Jeff Muldoon & Eric W. Liguori & Shelby Solomon & Josh Bendickson, 2023. "Technological Innovation and the expansion of Entrepreneurship Ecosystems," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 17(5), pages 1789-1808, July.
    14. Frank J. Van Rijnsoever & Marijn A. Van Weele & Chris P. Eveleens, 0. "Network brokers or hit makers? Analyzing the influence of incubation on start-up investments," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 0, pages 1-25.
    15. Caren Klingbeil & Thorsten Semrau, 2017. "For whom size matters – the interplay between incubator size, tenant characteristics and tenant growth," Industry and Innovation, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(7), pages 735-752, October.
    16. 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.
    17. Ünal, Cemre & Ceasu, Ioana, 2019. "A Machine Learning Approach Towards Startup Success Prediction," IRTG 1792 Discussion Papers 2019-022, Humboldt University of Berlin, International Research Training Group 1792 "High Dimensional Nonstationary Time Series".
    18. Marijn van Weele & Frank J. Rijnsoever & Chris P. Eveleens & Henk Steinz & Niels Stijn & Menno Groen, 2018. "Start-EU-up! Lessons from international incubation practices to address the challenges faced by Western European start-ups," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 43(5), pages 1161-1189, October.

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