Working Paper #2009-054
Incubators as Tools for Entrepreneurship Promotion in Developing Countries
This paper reviews the literature on incubators in developed and
developing countries. We show that the concept of incubators has evolved
in time according to market and firm needs. Contemporary successful
incubators are profit-oriented, provide a wide range of services, focus
more on intangible business services, and employ qualified managers and
support staff. By drawing lessons from country experiences we assess the
appropriateness of incubators as a tool for entrepreneurship promotion
in developing countries. The main weaknesses of incubators in developing
countries are: (i) focus on tangible services rather than intangible
services, (ii) dependence on government, (iii) lack of management and
qualified personnel, (iv) lack of incubator planning and creativeness in
solving problems. Most successful incubators display a creative and
innovative character in approaching problems of tenant companies. This
is of course correlated with the quality of the incubator management
staff. Moreover, incubators reflect the institutional set-up,
creativity, and policy innovativeness in a society. Therefore policy on
incubators should be well-integrated with other policies for
entrepreneurship promotion and economic development, such as education
and institutional deregulation.
- Keywords
-
- incubators
- developing countries
- technology
- JEL codes
-
- M13
- O31
- O32
- UNU-MERIT
- Working
- Papers
- ISSN
- 1871-9872
Cite this as
APA 7th ed.Akçomak, S. (2009). Incubators as Tools for Entrepreneurship Promotion in Developing Countries (UNU-MERIT Working Paper No. 2009-054). UNU-MERIT. https://unu-merit.nl/publications/working-papers/abstract/?id=3854