Nurturing technology-based firms: the resources-based perspective in the incubation process

Abstract

The role of small high-technology firms in economic growth and innovation is widely recognised. Realising their contribution to economics and innovation, fostering the growth of new technology-based firms by establishing incubators becomes a part of most universities or research centres' policy to commercialise research results. Many authors indicate some impetus and barriers to incubation development through some qualitative case study analyses. However, studies that approach incubator development quantitatively and systematically are scarce. Our research is an attempt to respond to the lack of attention given to factors underlying the growth of incubators as an intermediary agent for resources, and accordingly aims to identify these factors systematically. For this purpose we develop a causal model and test this model by applying a rough set analysis. The findings reveal that a combination of factors provides an explanation for the differences of the incubators' performance.