Abstract
To examine which factors affect the performance of technology business incubators in China, the present study proposes an entrepreneurial ecosystem framework with four key areas, i.e., people, technology, capital, and infrastructure. We then assess this framework using a three-year panel data set of 857 national-level technology business incubators in 33 major cities from 28 provinces in China, from 2015 to 2017. We utilize factor analysis to downsize dozens of characteristics of these technology business incubators into seven factors related to the four proposed areas. Panel regression model results show that four of the seven factors related to three areas of the entrepreneurial ecosystem, namely people, technology, and capital areas, have statistically significant associations with an incubator’s performance when applied to the overall national data set. Further, seven factors related to all four areas have various statistically significant associations with an incubator’s performance in five major regional data set. In particular, a technology related factor has a consistently statistically significant association with the performance of the incubator in both national model and the five regional models, as we expected.
Highlights
Entrepreneurial ecosystems have become an appealing topic for industrial practitioners, policymakers, and academic scholars to examine entrepreneurship development [1,2,3,4,5,6]
Based on the extant research on entrepreneurial ecosystems, the present study proposes four key areas of an entrepreneurial ecosystem that can help evaluate the performance of a technology business incubator (TBI); further, we empirically verify those four key areas with a unique panel data set from 857 national level TBIs in China from 2015 to 2017
We develop the following hypothesis for the relationship between economic infrastructure and an ecosystem’s performance: Hypothesis 6: A better economic infrastructure in an entrepreneurial ecosystem will have a positive impact on a TBI’s performance
Summary
Entrepreneurial ecosystems have become an appealing topic for industrial practitioners, policymakers, and academic scholars to examine entrepreneurship development [1,2,3,4,5,6]. Chinese governments established and acknowledged hundreds of national level TBIs across China to promote entrepreneurship development [25]. The actual development of incubators did not begin until the Mass Entrepreneurship and Innovation Initiative was proposed in 2014, almost 30 years after the Chinese government launched the first TBI, the Wuhan Donghu New Technology Entrepreneurship Center, in 1987 to facilitate knowledge transfer from universities to industry production. Based on the extant research on entrepreneurial ecosystems, the present study proposes four key areas of an entrepreneurial ecosystem that can help evaluate the performance of a TBI; further, we empirically verify those four key areas with a unique panel data set from 857 national level TBIs in China from 2015 to 2017.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
