This report explores the impact of business incubation on new ventures with high growth potential.

Key findings:

• Incubation can have a positive impact on a business’ development, but can also provide a start-up with ‘life support’, extending the time to business. However, over 60 per cent of incubator tenants say the incubator is critical to business performance.
• Incubators influence new firms by lending credibility through association; through access to professional facilities; offering business support and coaching; and providing access to resources and talent – legal help, for example. 
• Incubators deliver the most value when able to respond and adapt to the needs of new ventures.

Business incubators have proliferated since their emergence over 50 years ago.

Over this time business incubation has evolved to include a range of incubation practices; in this research incubation is defined as “...a shared office-space facility that seeks to provide its incubatees with a strategic, value adding intervention system of monitoring and business assistance.”

This paper aims to provide a thorough and focused literature review on business incubation.

The purpose of this review is to identify models of incubation that which are most effective in helping to build high-growth, innovative firms. 

Authors:

Nicola J. Dee, Finbarr Livesey, David Gill and Tim Minshall