Incubation: Does It Make a Difference After Graduation? Analysis from Portugal
In this chapter, we analyse the context in which two regional and university incubators were created and from which 32 companies graduated. The 2016 results for these companies are compared against the same set of results for 32 non-incubated companies. A
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ct In this chapter, we analyse the context in which two regional and university incubators were created and from which 32 companies graduated. The 2016 results for these companies are compared against the same set of results for 32 nonincubated companies. All 64 companies are of the same age (started between 2007 and 2011), work in technology and are located in the District of Aveiro. We conclude from the results that there is no significant difference as regards general business results. However, a closer examination of specific indicators shows that incubated companies behave differently from non-incubated ones in terms of the productivity of their intangible assets, grant dependency and external markets openness. Keywords Incubators · Regional business incubation · University business incubation · Graduation · Entrepreneurship · Performance indicators
1 Introduction Ever since the first business incubator was set up in the 1950s, in an egg farm in Batavia, NY, cities and institutions have been using decommissioned factory spaces to attract innovative entrepreneurs. More recently, in an international context of globalisation, in which intangible assets (e.g. intellectual capital, research and D. F. Polónia (*) GovCOPP (Governance, Competitiveness and Public Policy) Research Group, Economics, Management, Industrial Engineering and Tourism Department, University of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal e-mail: [email protected] J. Cunha ALGORITMI Research Centre, University of Minho, Guimarães, Portugal e-mail: [email protected] T. Leite Department of Production and Systems, University of Minho, Guimarães, Portugal © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 L. Farinha et al. (eds.), Regional Helix Ecosystems and Sustainable Growth, Studies on Entrepreneurship, Structural Change and Industrial Dynamics, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-47697-7_10
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development activities and services) are more highly valued than tangible assets (e.g. facilities and equipment, capital spending and manufacturing) (Madhani 2012); business incubators have been used as the place where entrepreneurs and venture capitalists come together to quickly create innovative companies, grow them and then sell them on to larger companies or to investors willing to pay a premium for an innovative business concept with adequate traction in the marketplace. Efforts to replicate this concept in Europe have led to interesting results, with the bibliography reporting several case studies (Nogueira et al. 2018; Sammut et al. 2017) of successful incubators located in Europe. Furthermore, public policies, particularly European Commission initiatives designed to drive cohesion and regional development (Mathernova and Bail 2010), have encouraged local decision- makers to adopt clear policies on supporting the business incubation concept. This has led to a renewal of the local entrepreneurial profile and triggered the emergence of innovative companies focused on monetising the benefits of the knowledge-based economy. Universities have also
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