Van Geenhuizen, Marina and Soetanto, Danny (2009) Growth of technology incubators:An evolutionary perspective. In: Technological Innovation Across Nations. Springer Berlin Heidelberg, pp. 141-158. ISBN 9783642001574
Full text not available from this repository.Abstract
Since the introduction of the first university-based technology incubator, this policy tool has gradually transformed under the influence of different (local) circumstances, particularly changes in the relationships between universities, government, and industry. In this chapter, we examine evolutionary changes within the institutional characteristics of technology incubators, and attempt to identify, among other things, the influence these changes have on the growth patterns of incubators. The three institutional characteristics considered include the model of stakeholder involvement (from single to multiple), the model of support (from conventional to value-added), and the overall growth strategy of the incubator (from focused to broad). We use a unique cross-national database of 40 incubators derived from a meta-analysis and apply a relatively new approach that corresponds with small, select samples and qualitative, sometimes fuzzy, data, namely, a rough set analysis. Overall, it appears that the combination of multiple stakeholder involvement and a location in a non-metropolitan area provides the most convincing explanation for strong growth. Conventional support coupled with a focused incubator strategy ranks second in terms of explanatory power, but relates to weak rather than strong growth.