Title: The stimulation of entrepreneurship through venture capital and business incubation

Authors: Fernando C. Gaspar

Addresses: Instituto Politecnico de Santarem, Escola Superior de Gestao, Complexo Andaluz apt. 295, 2001-904 Santarem, Portugal

Abstract: This paper studies the influence of venture capital and business incubation in entrepreneurship. A database of start-ups participated by venture capital and/or created in business incubation centres in Portugal was created. Venture capital companies and business incubation centres evaluated the performance of the start-ups that had been created with their support. After that, a questionnaire was distributed to the same start-ups to obtain information on the independent variables. The colinearity of sources was avoided this way. The results confirmed most of the formulated hypotheses, in other words, it was confirmed that venture capital and business incubation contribute positively to the decision of creating a new enterprise and to the survival of the young companies. Betting in a strong venture capital industry and in a good network of business incubation centres are therefore efficient strategies to support the growth of entrepreneurship and to improve the survival rate of start-ups.

Keywords: entrepreneurship; regional development; innovation management; Portugal; business incubation; start-ups; venture capital.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEIM.2009.024587

International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management, 2009 Vol.9 No.4, pp.396 - 415

Published online: 10 Apr 2009 *

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