Search results

The purpose of this paper is to study the incubator policy to support entrepreneurial development. In particular, the study reviews the incubation programs and strategies of technology transfer and commercialization as well as the innovation policies to support innovation commercialization in Thailand, based on the Triple Helix model.

This study employs the use of case study methodology to understand in-depth the operations of major university business incubators (UBIs) and technology business incubators in enhancing the process of technology commercialization. The study examines case studies of leading UBIs (Mahidol University, Chulalongkorn University and King Mongkut's University of Technology Thonburi) and science and technology incubators of the National Science and Technology Agency (NSTDA) and the National Innovation Agency (NIA). The operations and incubating policies are analyzed through the lens of Triple Helix model. The interviews were carried out using the semi-structured questionnaire to understand the views of trilateral parties (the government, university and industry) related to the concept of Triple Helix model. The interviews were carried out with major stakeholders including policy makers, policy analysts, government officials, managers running incubators, incubates, university professors, research managers. Interview data were supported by an examination of secondary data so as to provide a cross check on internal validity.

The results have shown that the incubation program is one of the major policy mechanisms to support innovation and suggested that UBIs should act as an intermediary between the spheres of university and industry to provide interactive linkages and promote effective utilization of university research. The empirical study provides insightful implications on the move toward the entrepreneurial university and the dynamics of the Triple Helix system in stimulating innovation development and diffusion.

By focussing on the major UBIs and technology business incubators in one of the Asian Tigers – Thailand, the study offers the model of university technology commercialization which could be applied to other developing economies. The study provides useful lessons and insights on the process of technology transfer and commercialization through the university incubation mechanism (university technology commercialization).

The purpose of this paper is to study the nature of the incubator manager (IM)‐client, client‐client and client‐IM‐client relationships that facilitate incubation activity.

A case study methodology was adopted for undertaking the empirical work. The case organization was an Irish Dublin‐based university campus incubator. During the course of the research, which lasted six months, data were collected from high‐technology client firms and the incubator management using semi‐structured interviews, non‐participant observation and corporate documents.

Incubation is very much dependent on the quality of human relationships and occurs via a process of co‐production in dyads and triads. Without the voluntary and active participation of client firms, the mechanisms that facilitate co‐production break down. There is no one master incubation process, it is comprised of small micro‐processes each with its own norms, dynamic and stages depending on relational quality.

The paper is based on a single case study using a qualitative, inductive and interpretive approach; the aim was analytic rather than statistical generalization, therefore, contributions are made to incubation theory.

The research makes a number of contributions; first, the amount of interaction among the incubation parties has the potential to both positively and negatively impact the overall quality of client experiences; second, levels of interaction and relational quality among a certain category of clients in the same incubator may be higher than others based on industrial affiliation; and third, brokerage behaviour by the IM that facilitates the connection of clients in consortia or links clients individually or in groups to unrelated outside agencies, improves the overall quality of the incubation environment.

Based on resource dependence theory and the concept of interlocking directorates, the purpose of this paper is to understand the importance of networks for start-ups and the role incubators play in these companies’ networking processes.

The research was conducted through semi-structured interviews with the entrepreneurs responsible for three start-ups and the heads of their incubators. The interview data were subjected to content analysis using NVivo software.

The results indicate that start-ups often resort to networks to overcome their weak reputations and scarce resources. Incubators play a quite important role in this process since they promote events that encourage the creation of partnerships and networks either between start-ups within the same incubator or with external institutions. In addition, the results reveal that most cooperation networks are informal and that they fulfil needs that start-ups are not yet able to meet themselves, for example, when they compete for public tenders.

The present study explored this topic from two perspectives (i.e. start-ups and incubators). This approach facilitated the identification of the main features upon which start-ups depend, the entities to which these companies turn for help, the kind of communication in which they usually engage, the primary advantages of establishing cooperation networks and the main types of support given by incubators.

Most studies of cooperation networks are based on transaction cost economics, a resource-based perspective and/or institutional theory. In contrast, this study innovated by applying resource dependence theory and the concept of interlocking directorates, which provided an alternative explanation regarding cooperation networks’ importance to start-ups and incubators’ roles in these companies’ networking processes.

This study aims to explore key factors and specific ways for the upgrade to hybrid incubators in the context of China. A hybrid incubator means that a technology-based business incubators (TBIs) can implement various distinct value creation processes with the integration of the advantages of non-for-profit and for-profit TBIs at same time as Chinese government now requires government-sponsored non-for-profit TBIs to be profitable self-sustainability with less dependent on direct public subsidies, aiming to motivate these TBIs to provide higher quality services for their tenant new technology-based firms (NTBFs).

This study conducts a single in-depth case-study of Tuspark Incubator (located in Tsinghua Science Park [TSP]) with categorical analysis.

Three factors, i.e. incubation subdivision, intermediary platform and proactive approach, are found to be essential for a formerly government-sponsored TBI’s upgrading. Incubation subdivision enables Tuspark Incubator to create multiple incubation processes with incubator characteristic variables of both non-for-profit and for-profit incubators; with the establishment of intermediary platform, Tuspark Incubator provides specialized business support and high-quality networking from relevant specialized service organizations external to the incubator; more proactive approach with equity investment on incubating firms from Tuspark Incubator help to generate social welfare and financial profit at the same time.

For the incubators’ managers, incubation subdivision enables TBIs to operate for-profit and non-for-profit processes at the same time and provides different specific needs; more open intermediary service platforms can leverage the full potential of the actors in innovation system and help TBIs to save resource when upgrading to hybrid incubators; proactive approaches nurture learning climate and entrepreneurship environment to enhance the successful rate on NTBFs inside incubators and provide main profit source for incubators. For policy makers, using proactive approaches including creating a good milieu for incubation on technology-based start-ups and the design of public guidance funds is increasingly crucial.

This research is a pioneering study on the key factors and specific ways for the upgrade of government-sponsored non-for-profit TBIs in China to hybrid for-profit and non-for-profit incubators.

The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, discuss and analyse the successful adoption of incubators worldwide; and second, the lessons learned from successful incubators towards the twenty-first century.

The research methodologies adopted in this study are a mixed-methods approach: quantitative (survey) and qualitative (five international case studies).

Incubators contribute to the international economy and play a vital role not only in the economic recovery but also in smart growth and economic development. These findings will assist incubator managers, policy makers and government parties in successful implementation of incubator policies.

This research focuses on specific lessons. More in-depth research may find additional positive traits.

This research will be of benefit to countries establishing business incubators in order to avoid mistakes and increase the likelihood of success.

This paper contributes to the current literate on the best practices worldwide. Furthermore, it presents future perspectives for academicians and practitioners.

Corporate incubation is a type of business incubation designed to assist small firms to develop using know-how available in large companies. The purpose of this paper is to explicate how incubation services can be co-produced and describe the contributions and conditions influencing learning and firm development.

The study used a longitudinal single-case method to analyze a small firm’s development process during four years of incubation. The authors recorded and analyzed interviews with the incubator manager and the entrepreneur, and with incubator staff and external stakeholders.

The incubator provided knowledge- and network-based services. These services emphasized the need for the entrepreneurs to be both proactive and receptive to counseling. Although the incubator and the entrepreneurs made progress in developing the company, a dispute over ownership shares threatened to break down the incubation process.

Taking evidence from a longitudinal case study, this paper exemplifies and emphasizes that incubation can be a process of interdependent service production in which entrepreneurs are active contributors. Future research should explore how managers and entrepreneurs handle the ambiguities of valuation of incubator contributions.

For managers it is important to take seriously the key task of communicating the value of the incubator’s contribution to the companies they recruit. For entrepreneurs it is important to find ways to estimate potential for value added from the incubator.

This paper provides a processual understanding of the dynamics of incubator co-production, not found in extant literature.

One of the most notable enterprises designed to accelerate the successful development of entrepreneurial companies through an array of business support resources and services is the business incubator. There are many key components to developing a successful business incubator. However, when one or two of these components are missing or inadequate, failure can follow. The purpose of this paper is to identify the key components to developing a successful business incubator as an effective tool for economic development, based on the case study of an unsuccessful effort.

The Gateway Innovation Center case study presents an opportunity to examine some possible pitfalls of developing a business incubator. A scant four months after opening, the organizers of the incubator decided to give up on the project. Exploring the various missteps in the formation of the Gateway Innovation Center provides a better understanding of key issues in developing successful incubators.

The lack of success was attributed to five features: function following form; lack of planning; lack of expertise; lack of due diligence; and market area would not support a technology incubator.

Very few business incubator failures are examined. This is one of the first case studies to examine the short life of a highly anticipated business incubator in an area of Southern California that was seeking to foster new businesses and create jobs in a region of relatively high unemployment.

Following recommendations by scholars for further research on the business incubation process, the purpose of this paper is to build new theory on incubation using the social mechanisms approach – a well-developed body of theory on social processes.

A critical review of dominant theoretical approaches in the area highlighted that researchers in the past have not studied incubation as a social “process.” In order to study a social process such as incubation, a case is made for the value of social mechanisms theory. In order to study incubation as a social mechanism, an inductive-qualitative research design based on ethnography was used. Data were collected over six months each at two Dublin-Ireland-based business incubators.

Results highlight the significant role of a positive relational bond between the incubator manager and client entrepreneurs. Incubation is triggered in a sophisticated normative environment under the prevalence of ground rules, subtle signals and the interplay of personal histories. These contribute to the incubation mechanism's non-linearity, thereby, making the prediction of outcomes difficult.

A contribution of this research comes in the form of a new conceptualization of incubation based in mechanisms reasoning. The mechanisms approach was found to be versatile and helped in extending the work of previous researchers who proposed advancements in the area based on dyadic theory, social capital theory and social network theory. Further, a new, and it is argued, more fruitful direction for incubation process-related research is also highlighted; one which takes on board the often glossed over idiosyncrasies of incubation as a social mechanism for promoting early stage entrepreneurship.

Through digitization and globalization, corporate incubators have gained new relevance as tool to foster innovation within established companies. Although many studies address business incubators in general, the specifics of corporate incubators are often neglected in the literature. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

The author systematically reviewed academic articles regarding corporate incubation, published in peer-reviewed journals. In the course of a subsequent analysis, open questions for further research were identified and addressed.

Corporate incubators differ significantly from business incubators. Based on an analysis of 45 academic papers, the main features of corporate incubators have been identified and addressed.

The present work suggests that it is one of the first that systematically analyze the literature on corporate incubation. Based on the literature review, a holistic framework was constructed that highlights the different elements of corporate incubation and also considers the incubator as knowledge broker between business units and ventures.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the drivers of new incubators’ business model. Several researchers have agreed that incubation is related to the early phase of a venture’s life and identified the incubators as organizations that support start-ups. But only recently has a new generation of incubators emerged.

Using an Italian incubator case study, the research results are mainly ascribable to the ability of the incubator to facilitate not only internal networking, but also external networking.

As described in the findings, the business model of the service incubator is founded on value-added services among networking within incubatees as well as between start-ups and external actors. The service incubator becomes a knowledge intermediary that allows new ventures to identify innovation parties and transform them into innovation partners.

The paper investigates the new business model of incubator founded on external networking orientation. Even if some researches analyzed incubators and cooperation within incubatees, less attention has been focussed on external networking and collaboration among incubators, incubatees, and several stakeholders. Based on such collaboration, incubatees can undertake new entrepreneurial measures, explore new markets, and innovate constantly.