Paper info

A Business Network Approach to University Incubators: Understanding the Value of Incubator Facilities

Francisco Maia, Catarina Roseira , Carla Ramos , Stephan Henneberg and Pete Naude

The paper was published at the 28th IMP-conference in Rome, Italy in 2012.

Underlying the concept of Networked Incubators (i.e. incubating facilities that induce networking activities) is the notion that networking is a cornerstone for successful entrepreneurial behaviours.Although previous research has studiedfactors that help fostering business relationships during the incubation process, little is known about the expectations that entrepreneurs have when joining an incubator, or about entrepreneurs’ degree of satisfaction regarding the fulfilment ofthose expectations in Networked Incubators. This studyaims at addressing this particular issue by positingnew ways of measuring incubator performancefrom the entrepreneurs’ perspective. Entrepreneurs face strongchallenges when launching their ventures, especially theliabilities of newness andliability of smallness.This study identifies four dimensions of valueby which incubators can help entrepreneurs address those initialliability challenges: Legitimacy/Credibility:Infrastructure: Business Support,and Networking.We focus on the case of UPTEC –Science and Technology Park of the University of Porto,to analyse and evaluate these different value aspects.The research uses a multi-method approach that combines qualitative and quantitative tools, with the use ofstatistical analysis, interview content analysis, and social network analysis. Findings show that theexpectations held by entrepreneurs fit the principles underlying the concept of a Networked Incubator: these expectationsare relatively high for the dimensions of Infrastructure, Legitimacy, and Networking (both internal and external). Entrepreneurs holdlower expectations regarding the Business Support provided by theincubator. However, contrary to the expectations and the principles underlying Networked Incubators, arelational analysis of the incubator shows a network with low levels of density, intensity, and few linkages developed between entrepreneurs withinthe incubator. The findings also reveal a number of factors that affect the effectiveness of the networking process, namely: space configuration, networking institutionalization, the matching between projects with complementary resources and capabilities, incubator portfolio configuration, and the investment required both by incubator management team and entrepreneurial teams.