Business incubation in Brazil: Creating an environment for new ventures

Abstract

Brazil leads one of the most successful incubation movements in Latin America, through innovation and adaptation of incubator models to suit indigenous needs. The government has clearly made incubators a policy priority as witnessed by the various initiatives to support incubators and incubatees. Even though business incubation has not gained widespread currency, multiple levels of government and a coalition of partners from various spheres appear to be involved in supporting incubators. Business incubation in Brazil is very much a bottom-up effort with universities playing a key role, unlike Chile where the government has played a relatively top-down role in fostering business incubation. Compared to China, the emphasis in Brazil appears to be more on the softer services such as networking relative to the provision of physical space and hard infrastructure. This article discusses the business incubation landscape in Brazil drawing comparisons with China and Chile, along with policy implications.