Business Incubation Services Research Articles

The Evolution of Business Incubators: Comparing demand and supply of business incubation services across different incubator generations

Business incubators (BIs) have been established around the world to stimulate new business creation. Whilst it is accepted that incubation models have evolved, little is known about whether existing incubators have adjusted their value proposition to incorporate recent incubation paradigms or have simply remained operating as originally founded. We present data collected within seven BIs and their tenants regarding service provision and selection criteria. Our findings show that whilst BIs of all generations offer similar support services, tenants in older generation BIs make less use of the BI's service portfolio. We suggest this is a consequence of slack selection criteria and the absence of clearly defined exit policies. These results imply that older generation BIs should update their service portfolio while simultaneously imposing stricter selection criteria and introducing exit policies. Finally, we discuss the wider implications this raises for BIs' managers, prospective tenants and policy makers.

An Evaluation of the Entrepreneurs’ Perception of Business-Incubation Services in Kenya

Business incubators provide an important service network for new and fledgling Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Kenya. To ascertain the perception of the importance of business incubation process and how recipients perceive the service to be rendered, perceptions of 124 entrepreneurs are compared. The survey endeavored to cover all types of business-incubation programme in Kenya that target SMEs, but it was found that although close to twenty-five institutions operated some form of business incubation services or another, only twelve were confirmed as business incubators per se. The findings on the entrepreneurs’ respondent, first from the descriptive statistics shows that the mean scores for the importance of services of business-incubation processes is higher than the rating of how actually the services were received. The hypothesis empirically tested using paired t-test indicates that a gap exist between how entrepreneurs’ perceive business-incubation (services) process and what they actually receive. Based on the means of the two, they actually received less than anticipated. However, being a quantitative study the exact details of the real nature of business-incubation- services attached to the importance/ rendered services are not documented in the study. While the research provided new insights into business-incubation services in Kenya, numerous questions ring out in mind.

The Franz Building: A Strong Advocation for Adaptive Re-Use in Post-Katrina New Orleans

Abstract “The Franz Building is in an area targeted for revitalization in the Planning District 2 Unified New Orleans Plan. The building is historic and located on a major corridor in Central City. Its renovation will preserve a piece of history of the neighborhood as well as help bring commerce to Oretha Castle Haley Boulevard, a street that was once a major commercial area. In addition, Good Work Network's business incubation services provide another key component of Planning District 2 plans for area revitalization.” —Councilmember Stacy Head, New Orleans City Council, District B

기업가특성과 기업성과 간의 관계에 대한 창업보육서비스의 조절역할에 관한 연구

This study focuses on examination a) of impacts of entrepreneurs` psychological characteristics on business performance (need fur achievement and risk-taking propensity), b) of impacts of entrepreneur`s competency characteristics(vision, opportunity recognition, social deftness, frequency of networking and reliability) on business performance, and c) of controlling impacts of business incubator on the relationship between entrepreneurs` characteristics (psychological characteristics and competency) and business performance. According to a study, among entrepreneurs` psychological characteristics, need for achievement has a significant impact on business performance, whereas risk-taking propensity is found to have no significant impact on business performance. In addition, among entrepreneurs` competency characteristics, vision, social deftness, and network reliability have no impact on business performance, whereas opportunity recognition and frequency of network have an impact on business performance. On the other hand, need for achievement has a negative impact on controlling business incubator services. Business incubator services have a significant impact on the relationship between vision, network reliability and business performance.

Investigating and classifying clients' satisfaction with business incubator services

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to show that a business incubation/incubator program is an enterprise development strategy, aimed at accelerating the process of formation, development, survivability and growth of new enterprises by providing those new enterprises (clients) with a wide range of business assistance including physical facilities, business counselling and networking. This paper presents results of a research conducted to investigate the level of satisfaction/dissatisfaction of the clients with the provision of those assistance services.Design/methodology/approachIn this paper the level of clients' satisfaction/dissatisfaction with a service is calculated using a proposed framework in terms of the mean difference between the importance of the service and the effectiveness of incubator management in providing the respective service as perceived by the clients.FindingsThe results in this paper indicate that clients were generally more satisfied with facility related services than the counselling and business networking assistances services. However, there are significant differences between the perceived importance attached to a number of facility related services and the effectiveness of those services, suggesting a variation of the level of clients' satisfaction.Originality/valueThese findings have important implications for the management of business incubation programs, which are highlighted in this paper.