A Systematic Review of Business Incubation Research

Abstract

This article systematically reviews the literature on business incubators and business incubation. Focusing on the primary research orientations—i.e. studies centering on incubator development, incubator configurations, incubatee development, incubator-incubation impacts, and theorizing about incubators-incubation—problems with extant research are analyzed and opportunities for future research are identified. From our review, it is clear that research has just begun to scratch the surface of the incubator-incubation phenomenon. While much attention has been devoted to the description of incubator facilities, less attention has been focused on the incubatees, the innovations they seek to diffuse, and the incubation outcomes that have been achieved. As interest in the incubator-incubation concept continues to grow, new research efforts should focus not only on these under-researched units of analysis, but also on the incubation process itself.