Title: Start-up development issues in business incubators

Authors: Jamal Hussain; Himadri Barman

Addresses: Centre for Management Studies, Dibrugarh University, Dibrugarh, India ' Centre for Management Studies, Dibrugarh University, Dibrugarh, India

Abstract: Business incubators (BIs) are organisations meant for nurturing nascent businesses. The BIs bestow vital resources to the start-ups necessary for their development. Notwithstanding, little focus has been given to understand start-ups' expectations from the BIs and their satisfaction on support services during the process of their development in the BIs. The present study sheds light on this issue by conducting a survey on 279 start-ups incubated during 2010-2020 in seven BIs. The study unveils that the start-ups' key purpose of joining BIs are access to funding, alliance building, legal assistance, business mentoring and coaching services and that the satisfaction level is short of expectation. This study provides valuable insights to enhance the start-ups' development process in the BIs. The issues that are identified can be vital in formulating business incubator's service management and development strategies.

Keywords: incubatee; tenant; start-up development; small business development; entrepreneurship; support services; developing nations; business incubator; satisfaction; expectation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMED.2024.139264

International Journal of Management and Enterprise Development, 2024 Vol.23 No.2, pp.97 - 116

Received: 10 Dec 2023
Accepted: 12 Mar 2024
Published online: 28 Jun 2024 *

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