A relational exploratory study of business incubation and smart cities - Findings from Europe

Abstract

This is a pioneering research linking two areas of knowledge which attract great attention from academia, industry, and governments: business incubation and smart cities. It is a quantitative exploratory study, whose purpose is to investigate the relationship between incubation mechanisms and local urban development according to the concept of Smart City. Methodologically, canonical correlation analysis was applied between two sets of elements: variables associated to business incubation and variables related to smart city characteristics. The research was concentrated on 157 medium- and large-sized cities from 25 European countries. Based on the findings, clusters analysis was also performed. The article presents, among the main results: (1) evidence of correlation between business incubation and smart urban development, and (2) visual classification of these cities into four clusters, according to their urban development and incubation activity.