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The purpose of this paper is to provide the initial evidence on the role of business incubation (BI) in supporting startups and BI practices from developing communities in Uganda.

This study is cross-sectional and a triangulation of quantitative and qualitative data were used. Data were collected by means of a questionnaire and an interview guide from 28 incubators.

Results indicate that business incubators play different roles in communities such as business assistance, networking, provision of necessary infrastructure and provision of an enabling environment. Furthermore, BI practices were identified such as networking, human resource, tenant management and assessment practices.

This study was cross-sectional and thus monitoring changes in behavior of incubatees overtime was not possible. The study was conducted in Uganda, and it is possible that the results of this study can be generalized to developing communities with environments similar to that of Uganda.

The results are important for business incubators in improving the sustainability of startups in Uganda. The study will enable business incubators to understand their role and incubator practices in as far as supporting small and medium-sized enterprises is concerned.

While there have been a number of studies on BI, this study provides an initial empirical evidence on the role of BI and BI practices using evidence from developing communities in Uganda.