The Nigerian Business Incubation Programme: The Moderating Role of Government Policy

Abstract

An instrument which practitioners have acknowledged as an essential mechanism used in supporting greenhorn companies is the business incubation system. Several countries of the world have implemented the business incubation concept ever since it was conceived and developed in the United States in 1959. It is a model that has typically given itself much more readily within industrialized countries with identical environments to the United States. Nigeria also adapted it in 1993 where the resulting process and practice failed to live up to anticipations. To determine the significant role of government policy on the incubation dimensions and its success is the purpose of this research. Data collection process involved the surveying of stakeholders in Nigeria with some direct involvement in the national programme. The Partial Least Squares (PLS) was employed for the analysis. The findings showed that all exogenous variables collectively explained 52.4% of the variance in success. Meanwhile, when a moderation effect is present; the variable increased to 62.3%. Consequently, it is recommended that for a business incubation scheme to be successful and effective, government needs to implement efficient policies since results showed that these policies influenced all the relationships. The results’ implications as well as limitations of the study are discussed.