Managing university incubators as commercial entities: facilitators, barriers and approaches.

Brendan Galbraith, Rodney McAdam, Paul Humphreys

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

Abstract

The rapid growth in the number and type of incubator models in Europe, their rising set-up and operating costs and the mixed reviews of their success are several reasons for this research. A possible reason for this is that while technology aspects of university incubators receive considerable attention and development, as the primary force in the creation of incubator businesses, the business and social aspects are less well defined or understood (McAdam et al, 2005; McAdam et al., 2006). A key generic lesson that this paper draws on, is that university incubators are not standalone entities and that their success will be based on how well they exploit their local situation by skilfully identifying the potential offered by local resources and leveraging their advantage (Autio and Klofsten, 1998). Anchoring onto theories such as the resource-based view of the firm (RBV) and absorptive capacity it is argued that a business process perspective may be useful to conceptualise this interaction and assist the business and social aspects of technology transfer. This paper focuses on the management of university incubators, in particular how they provide business support to their tenant companies and how they interact with their local environment to aid this process? The preliminary findings identify facilitating factors and barriers in the providing business support to incubator companies. These barriers and facilitating factors occur at: (1) inventor/project level (2) incubator level and (3) university level. Case research involved a variety of stakeholders in university incubators in the UK (2), Republic of Ireland (1) and USA (3). Finally, practical suggestions, policy recommendations and a research agenda are presented.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationUnknown Host Publication
PublisherBritish Academy of Management
Number of pages15
ISBN (Print)0-9549608-2-3
Publication statusPublished (in print/issue) - 12 Sept 2006
EventBritish Academy of Management 2006 - Building International Communities Through Collaboration - Waterfront Hall, Belfast, UK
Duration: 12 Sept 2006 → …

Conference

ConferenceBritish Academy of Management 2006 - Building International Communities Through Collaboration
Period12/09/06 → …

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