Business support within business incubators

Tiago Ratinho; Rainer Harms; Aart Groen

Business support within business incubators

Tiago Ratinho, Rainer Harms, Aart Groen

Faculty of Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences

Research output: Contribution to conference › Paper

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Abstract

Business incubators (BI) have been established worldwide as tools for company creation and small businesses support. BIs claim to help their tenants by providing them with the optimal conditions for increasing early stage survival. Practitioners and researchers agree that business support is a crucial dimension of BI. Yet this feature is seldom researched. In this study we investigate to what extent business incubators support their tenants overcome their developmental problems. Results show that tenants do not experience many problems and when they do business support is not necessarily sought. Furthermore, our data suggests that business support is not preferentially sought within incubator environment. When this happens, support provided by the BI does not contribute to problem solving. Finally, we discuss the impact of the type of BI in helping their tenants.

Original language	English
Number of pages	18
Publication status	Published - 3 Jun 2009
Event	Babson College Entrepreneurship Research Conference, BCERC 2009 - Babson College, Wellesley, United States Duration: 3 Jun 2009 → 6 Jun 2009

Conference

Conference	Babson College Entrepreneurship Research Conference, BCERC 2009
Abbreviated title	BCERC
Country/Territory	United States
City	Wellesley
Period	3/06/09 → 6/06/09

Keywords

Problem solving
Business support
Business incubators
Business incubation

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Ratinho09businessFinal published version, 105 KB

1 Conference contribution

Business support within business incubators
Ratinho, T., Harms, R. & Groen, A., 8 Jun 2009, TitelProceedings of the 16th international Product Development Management Conference: "Managing dualities in the innovation journey", June 7-9, 2009, Twente. Enschede: European Institute for Advanced Studies in Management, p. 166-167 18 p. (International Product Development Management Conference; vol. 2009).
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › Academic › peer-review

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Cite this

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abstract = "Business incubators (BI) have been established worldwide as tools for company creation and small businesses support. BIs claim to help their tenants by providing them with the optimal conditions for increasing early stage survival. Practitioners and researchers agree that business support is a crucial dimension of BI. Yet this feature is seldom researched. In this study we investigate to what extent business incubators support their tenants overcome their developmental problems. Results show that tenants do not experience many problems and when they do business support is not necessarily sought. Furthermore, our data suggests that business support is not preferentially sought within incubator environment. When this happens, support provided by the BI does not contribute to problem solving. Finally, we discuss the impact of the type of BI in helping their tenants.",

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AU - Harms, Rainer

AU - Groen, Aart

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AB - Business incubators (BI) have been established worldwide as tools for company creation and small businesses support. BIs claim to help their tenants by providing them with the optimal conditions for increasing early stage survival. Practitioners and researchers agree that business support is a crucial dimension of BI. Yet this feature is seldom researched. In this study we investigate to what extent business incubators support their tenants overcome their developmental problems. Results show that tenants do not experience many problems and when they do business support is not necessarily sought. Furthermore, our data suggests that business support is not preferentially sought within incubator environment. When this happens, support provided by the BI does not contribute to problem solving. Finally, we discuss the impact of the type of BI in helping their tenants.

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M3 - Paper

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ER -

Business support within business incubators

Abstract

Conference

Keywords

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Research output

Business support within business incubators

Cite this