Technology Business Incubators Research Articles

Enhancing Entrepreneurship Resource Competence through Business Incubator Consultant Certification

This paper presents the results of a certification program aimed at enhancing the competency of entrepreneurship resources through the certification of business incubator consultants. The program, conducted by the Indonesia Management Forum and HR24/7 Communication Hub in Bali, involved participants from various regions across Indonesia. The training sessions covered topics such as advocacy for technology business incubator development, product-market fit analysis, business idea validation, feasibility study preparation, legal and institutional management, company profile creation, access to financing, marketing assistance, business valuation, and financial report preparation. The program culminated in a competency assessment on the third day. The results indicated a high level of satisfaction among participants, highlighting the program's effectiveness in improving their understanding and skills in technology business incubator management. The implications of this program include the potential enhancement of Indonesia's entrepreneurship ecosystem and contributions to the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals.

Validation Studies a Questionnaire Developed to Measure Incubator Business Technology Performance using PLS-SEM Approach

This research aims to collect data nationally using a questionnaire based on statements related to the performance factors of the Technology Business Incubator in Indonesia. This research uses the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) method to test the validity and reliability of adapted scales. There are five stages starting with an outer model test to test the validity and reliability of the questionnaire's feasibility. The population in this research are organizations that are affiliated with the Indonesian Business Incubator Association (AIBI) and Ministry of Research, Technology and Higher Education, including business incubators belonging to ministries, local governments, the private sector and universities, there are 182 Technology Business Incubators in Indonesia. Testing in this research looks at whether the questions in the questionnaire are valid or not by going through two stages of convergent validity and discriminant validity. The first stage is convergent validity that aim of finding out the correlation between indicators and their latent variables. The second stage is discriminant validity which aims to find out whether the latent variable has adequate discriminant value and this was done to find out whether the statement items in the questionnaire were reliable and consistent in measuring the same symptoms in respondents. This research looks at the results of convergent validity analysis to consider the results of factor loading indicators on relevant factors, the results of testing the validity of all factors with a value greater than 0.50, one of which is an AVE value of 0.550, indicating that the indicators in these variables have a strong contribution in measuring the desired construct, and the reliability test of all variables is reliable because it exceeds 0.70, one of which is the facility variable which has a value of 0.858.

Analisis Peran dan Fungsi Science Techno Park, Technology Transfer Office dan Technology Business Incubator untuk Mendukung Proses Komersialisasi Hasil Riset Perguruan Tinggi (Studi Kasus: Universitas Telkom)

The government has launched a program to increase research in universities and commercialize research results in order to improve the economy and foster an entrepreneurial spirit from an early age, besides that it is expected to have an impact on society and the surrounding environment to support the era of globalization and digitalization which is increasingly developing today. the purpose of this study is to re-identify how the role and function of each of these entities in order to support the commercialization of research results of the Telkom University academic community and how the entities relate to each other which can be mapped through the Entity Relationship Diagram. this research uses qualitative research. The object of research is the technology transfer office, technology business incubator, and science techno park incorporated in the Bandung Techno Park area. The results of this study indicate that the function and role of STP is to create a culture of entrepreneurship and commercialize innovative products from the Telkom University academic community. the function and role of TTO is to protect Intellectual Property from the results of innovative products and commercialize in the form of Industrial Licensing or Cooperation contracts. The function and role of TBI is to develop entrepreneurship programs, business incubation and form spinoff companies. The relationship between these three entities is that STP oversees innovation products from upstream to downstream in its area, which is the Directorate of BTP and PPM. TTO helps the process of being born from the innovation products escorted by STP, which can be said to be BTP as a whole more specifically in the KI&TTO Center, then also PT BUT. TBI is in the middle of STP and TTO whether it needs to be incubated or can be directly commercialized, which is the BTP Incubator and Business Innovation (IIB) unit.

Contextualising gender policy in tech entrepreneurship: a cross national and multiple-level analysis

PurposeIn order to address the gender divide in technology entrepreneurship, we explore how different national contexts impact policies and policy implementation. We investigate how transnational concerns (macro level) about women’s low participation in (technology) entrepreneurship are translated and implemented amongst actors at the meso level (technology incubators) and understood at the micro level (women tech entrepreneurs).Design/methodology/approachWe adopt gender institutionalism as a theoretical lens to understand what happens in the implementation of gender equality goals in technology entrepreneurship policy. We apply Gains and Lowndes’ (2014) conceptual framework to investigate the gendered character and effects of institutional formation. Four countries represent different levels of gender equality: high (Norway and Sweden), medium (Ireland) and low (Israel). An initial policy document analysis provides the macro level understanding (Heilbrunn et al., 2020). At the meso level, managers of technology business incubators (n = 3–5) in each country were interviewed. At the micro level, 10 female technology entrepreneurs in each country were interviewed. We use an inductive research approach, combined with thematic analysis.FindingsPolicies differ across the four countries, ranging from women-centred approaches to gender mainstreaming. Macro level policies are interpreted and implemented in different ways amongst actors at the meso level, who tend to act in line with given national policies. Actors at the micro level often understand gender equality in ways that reflect their national policies. However, women in all four countries share similar struggles with work-life balance and gendered expectations in relation to family responsibilities.Originality/valueThe contribution of our paper is to (1) entrepreneurship theory by applying gendered institutionalism theory to (tech) entrepreneurship, and (2) our findings clearly show that the gendered context matters for policy implementation.

The Impact of Urban Public Services on the Residence Intentions of Migrant Entrepreneurs in the Western Region of China

Balanced regional development affects high-quality and sustainable development. Previous studies have shown that regional talent allocation, technology business incubators, industrial ecology, cross-regional cooperation, and balanced investment in higher education have positive effects on sustained regional development. Therefore, discussing more influencing factors that promote regionally balanced development is necessary. As far as China is concerned, with the spread of the migrant population to the central and western regions, it is of certain significance to explore the factors affecting the development of the western region from the perspective of migrant entrepreneurs’ flow. Urban public services, as an important way for the government to attract talent, directly affect the residence intentions of migrant entrepreneurs in the future. This paper uses the matching data of the 2017 China Migrants Dynamic Survey and 289 prefecture-level city data from the China City Statistical Yearbook to study the impact of urban public services in the western region on the residence intention of migrant entrepreneurs and further examines the heterogeneous impact of urban public services in the western region on the residence intention of migrant entrepreneurs. We find that urban public services in the western region significantly affect the residence intention of migrant entrepreneurs; that is, the higher the level of urban public services, the stronger the residence intention of migrant entrepreneurs. According to the heterogeneity analysis of household registration differences, generational differences, family structure differences, employment identity differences, and industry and flow range differences, this paper finds that public services have a positive impact on the residence intention of non-urban migrant entrepreneurs, the older generation of migrant entrepreneurs, entrepreneurs with small family structures, migrant entrepreneurs in low-tech industries, self-employed entrepreneurs, cross-province migration, and intra-province migrant entrepreneurs. Further analysis indicates that the level of education, culture, medical care, and transportation services in cities significantly enhances the permanent residence intentions of migrant entrepreneurs. The research conclusion not only provides reference and inspiration for China to achieve common prosperity through entrepreneurship and poverty reduction practices, but it can also, to some extent, alleviate population aggregation in large cities and promote the formation of a scientific and reasonable urbanization pattern. In addition, this paper explores the attractiveness of public services to migrant entrepreneurs in the western region of China from the perspective of entrepreneurs’ mobility and complements the relevant research on promoting regional balanced development.

How Entrepreneurial Characteristics and Incubation Facilities Shape Venture Creation among Technology Business incubators in Nigeria

How Entrepreneurial Characteristics and Incubation Facilities Shape Venture Creation among Technology Business incubators in Nigeria

How entrepreneurial characteristics and incubation facilities shape venture creation among technology business incubators in Nigeria

How entrepreneurial characteristics and incubation facilities shape venture creation among technology business incubators in Nigeria

Strategic Management Theories in Startups Assessment: A Multicriteria Fuzzy Decision-making Approach

Evaluating start-up companies is an important management process for technology business incubators and it is also a typical multi-criteria decision‐making (MCDM) problem. Venture capitalists consider a MCDM problem before investing in a new venture, and the order preference of these criteria helps them make effective and efficient decisions. In this paper, we use fuzzy logic with the analytic hierarchy process (FAHP) technique to measure the relative importance of the strategic theory variables in assessment of a startup. The results of the study show that venture capitalist investors consider internal resources to be the most important criteria in evaluation, followed by industry resources and network-based. Entrepreneurs' track record also has a strong significant influence on startup assessment. The suggested tools confirm that it is possible to diversify the risks of an investor through the allocation of resources between several projects, in accordance with the received vector of global priorities, and such information is of high value for the process of decision-making. Therefore, the proposed approach outranks the required strategic inputs and provides a foundation to incorporate other statistical techniques, such as ANP, machine learning, and deep learning, in evaluation and to validate the results for future research.

Developing Entrepreneurial Ecosystem: A Case Study of Technopark, Thiruvananthapuram

Technopark in Thiruvananthapuram is one of the largest technological parks in the world. It was established by the Government of Kerala in 1990 as an autonomous organization to meet the infrastructure needs of emerging electronics and Information Technology industry. The Technopark has now expanded to accommodate more than 200 companies that employ a large portion of the IT workforce in Kerala. Besides, Technopark also helps the budding entrepreneurs through its state-of-the-art Technopark Technology Business Incubator (T-TBI) which provides economical plug and play facilities to start-ups in IT/ITeS sectors and support them throughout the gestation period. Characteristic features of Technopark contribute significantly toward developing an enabling ecosystem for the entrepreneurs within the campus. This article provides an insightful account of how the Technopark is changing the entrepreneurial landscape in Kerala and creating opportunities for the young to innovate, grow and become successful in all their ventures. True, Technopark is a success story of a government organization turning the tide towards entrepreneurship development in an unconventional manner.

Entrepreneurial ecosystem for promoting social innovation in emerging markets: Is corporate social responsibility integration with technology business incubators the right path?

AbstractThis study attempts to fill in two research gaps in the extant literature concerning the ecosystem for social innovation in the context of emerging market economies such as India. The study first attempts to assess the potential of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in not‐for‐profit entities such as technology business incubators (TBIs) to stimulate social innovations in the prevalent ecosystems in emerging markets. Further, using a random‐effects Tobit model, the study examines the characteristics of firms that spend higher percentages of CSR expenditure on not‐for‐profit TBIs/societies/trusts in India. The study provides policy suggestions to create an entrepreneurial ecosystem for promoting social innovation in emerging markets such as India.

Facilitator of Technology Business Incubation Activities Requires the Ability to Run the Role and Function of Public

Facilitator of Technology Business Incubation Activities Requires the Ability to Run the Role and Function of Public

How can the Digital Economy Boost the Performance of Entrepreneurs? A Large Sample of Evidence from China’s Business Incubators

The digital economy enabled by digital technologies is reshaping economic and social development, bringing a digital revolution to entrepreneurship and innovation. Does the digital economy realistically translate into excellence in microentrepreneurial ventures, and do business incubators still play an important role in the digital era? There is a lack of sufficient evidence in this area. This study combines macro and micro perspectives, economics, and management perspectives and examines the relationship between regional digital economy development and incubates performance using a panel fixed effects model based on a large sample of data from Chinese technology business incubators and their incubates. Robustness tests were also conducted by the instrumental variable’s method and other conventional methods, and the stepwise regression method was used to set up a mediating effect model of incubation service support to test the mechanism of the impact of the digital economy on the performance of incubated enterprises. The results of this study show that the development of the digital economy in cities helped improve the revenue capacity of startups, and the more developed the digital economy is, the better the financial performance of startups performs. From a resource-based view, resource service support from incubators, such as capital, technology, human resources, and knowledge, is an important channel through which the digital economy promotes the performance of startups. This study provides new perspectives and additions to theoretical and empirical studies of the digital economy and entrepreneurship development and provides policy and management insights for the development of the business incubation industry from the digital economy perspective.

Research on network capacity, absorptive capacity and service innovation performance of technology business incubators—based on PLS-SEM and fsQCA methods

Introduction: In the new economic normal, technology incubators are an important support to achieve the growth of strategic emerging enterprises. On the basis of resource based theory, organizational learning theory, inter-organizational relationship theory, and network capability theory, this study constructs a theoretical framework and hypotheses of the impact of network capability within the “resource-capability-relationship” perspective, absorptive capacity on service innovation performance of technology business incubators.Methods: This study uses 234 Chinese incubators in the incubator network as samples and applies partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to explore the questions mentioned above.Results: The results verify the relationship between network capacity, absorptive capacity, and service innovation performance. Furthermore, the results yield four paths that lead to high service innovation performance, such as “network capability orientation” and “high absorption orientation”, which are different combinations of network capacity and absorptive capacity.Discussion: The research results are important for improving the innovation performance of technology incubator services and ensuring the stable and effective operation of incubated enterprises.

Research on the Evaluation and Prediction of the Operation Efficiency of China's Science and Technology Business Incubators

Based on the division of the three major economic regions in the east, the middle and the west, the operational efficiency of science and technology incubators in 31 provinces (cities) from 2010 to 2019 and 2019 is analyzed by DEA-BCC model, and the development trend of science and technology incubators in the next six years and their contribution to GDP are predicted by using the grey model GM (1,1). It is concluded that while giving consideration to fairness, we should pay attention to the total allocation of scientific and technological resources between the eastern, central and western regions to improve the efficiency of scientific and technological resources allocation, promote the development of high-tech in late-developing regions, accurately allocate resources and stabilize regional economic development.

Does the Type of Funding Affect Innovation? Evidence from Incubators in China

Technology business incubation is vital for the promotion of innovative development and plays an essential role in economic development and social stability. This paper empirically studies the impact of fund types on incubator innovation and its mechanisms using China’s incubator data from 2015 to 2019 and the fixed effect model. It is found that incubation funds, venture capital, and fiscal subsidies can significantly promote incubator innovation, with venture capital having the most substantial boost, followed by incubation funds and fiscal subsidies. Analysis of these mechanisms reveals that the promotion of incubator innovation by different funds relies primarily on R&D expenditure and on the scale of technology services expenditures. Further analysis shows that the effect varies according to the incubator, and that a reduction in the proportion of a comprehensive incubator fund or in the proportion of subsidy for a professional incubator does not contribute to enterprise innovation. This paper provides empirical evidence to support China in its improvement of the financing mechanisms for entrepreneurship and the promotion of sustainable economic and social development.

Book Review: Technology Business Incubator Process and Performance

Innovation ecosystems support the evolution of technology startups besides nurturing their growth.[1] Most of the available literature on this phenomenon focuses on the developed economies, and there is a void in studying emerging economies. This book on “Technology Business Incubators in India Structure, Role and Performance” addresses the same. The focus on the various constituents of TBIs in the form of Accelerators, Business incubators, and Co-working spaces and their structure, role, and performance are examined. Read more...

Voice of Startups

While innovation and entrepreneurship have been the main drivers of economic growth in today's world, technology business incubators (TBIs) are expected to promote the innovation-based economy. However, both academy and practice show that TBIs still have a long way to go. Unlike previous studies focusing on TBIs, this study is conducted from the perspective of startups to explore what they want from TBIs. Besides, this study also compares the differences between Korea and China. Results indicate that TBIs need to improve their service quality by taking a startup's life cycle into consideration; startups cannot always realize what they want, and differences exist due to distinct entrepreneurship-related policies and culture. Accordingly, the authors give suggestions to help the government and TBIs play a better role in encouraging startups' development so as to match the TBI with startups.

Determinant factors of lean start-up-based incubation metrics on post-incubation start-up viability: case-based study

PurposeThis paper aims to investigate the effect of business incubation metrics based on an adaptation of the lean start-up (LS) framework on start-up survival after incubation. This study also analyzes the obstacles in implementing the LS framework as incubation metrics.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses mixed methods. Quantitative research using multiple linear regression was applied to the data of 30 start-ups incubated at Bandung Techno Park for the 2014–2017 period and survival tracking data after the incubation. A qualitative approach to complete the explanatory work was conducted through in-depth interviews with 12 respondents, including start-up graduates from the incubation program, program managers and mentors.FindingsThis study confirms that several LS incubation metrics significantly affect start-up sustainability after incubation. In addition, this study also explains several problems in applying the LS discipline that needs attention to increase incubation success.Research limitations/implicationsResearch was conducted only at one technology business incubator (TBI) model that focuses on digital start-ups in the emerging ecosystem. Research results can be biased in different situations and ecosystems.Practical implicationsThe explanation of the relationship of LS-based incubation metrics to the survival of start-ups, as well as the challenges of their implementation, can be a reference for TBI management to consider and prioritize intervention strategies, thereby improving TBI’s business processes and increasing the success rate of incubated start-ups.Social implicationsThe creation of university start-ups and spin-offs has become a key performance indicator mandatory for technology universities in Indonesia. The existence of TBI institutions in universities as channels of technology commercialization is essential. The incubator’s success in creating a new technology-based company will have a significant social impact on the surrounding environment.Originality/valueAlthough the LS method is popular in start-up communities and among practitioners, it is rarely used in the incubation process at universities. These results can be considered for university TBIs to explore LS as an incubation management tool to increase the success rate of incubated start-ups.

Initiation of the establishment of a technology business incubator at university for agripreneurship (study case at Bengkulu University, Indonesia)

Purpose. This paper aims to analyze aspects related to the establishment of business incubators at Bengkulu University as well as what factors are most expected by students towards the establishment of technology business incubators at this university.
 Results. The results of data collection were processed using the partial least square method to analyze aspects related to the establishment of business incubators at Bengkulu University as well as factors are most expected by students towards the formation of technology business incubators at this university. This research show that support variables were found had a significant effect on the initiation of the Technology Business Incubator at Bengkulu University. Support is providing research and business development assistance and access to technology used for students in agripreneurship. Support is the latent variable requested by five manifest variables: (1) access partnership programs from the ministry, (2) professional network access, (3) technology access, (4) access international relations, and (5) job creation.
 Scientific novelty. Support variables were found had a significant effect on the initiation of the Technology Business Incubator at Bengkulu University. This research explains a lot about the novelty of the type of establishment of pilot incubators in universities in poor areas.
 Practical value. The results are useful in initiating the creation of a business incubator that meets the requirements. The results of this study can be used as a reference in establishing a business incubator at the university level. It is important to ensure access to funding, to professional services, to technology, to international relations, and an understanding of the importance of creating jobs.

Factors Influencing the Success of Agripreneurs in Tamil Nadu

Entrepreneurship encourages the growth of small businesses in society. It was widely acknowledged that small businesses played a critical role in the country’s economic development. The study has been conducted to identify the factors influencing the success of agripreneurs. By proportionate random sampling method, 104 respondents were selected from two incubators namely Technology Business Incubator, Coimbatore and Madurai Agribusiness Incubation Forum, Madurai. Factor analysis was used to identify the factors. As a result seven factors such as directorial factor, functional factor, decisive factor, personal factor, financial factor, opportunity factor and ideological factor were identified, which contributed to the success of agripreneurs. From this directorial and functional factors had high variance with factor loadings. Among different variables, innovativeness, family type and credit orientation had highest factor loadings. This study suggested that entrepreneurial traits would be improved by the agripreneurs to achieve the success.