Application of Importance and Performance Matrix to Assess the Quality of Services Provided by Business Incubators

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to demonstrate the use of importance and performance matrix in assessing the quality of services provided by incubators. It is a descriptive research and it uses a qualitative approach. The research design is a case study, based on interviews with four entrepreneurs from the same incubator. It also uses a documental analysis from the public notice selection of the incubates used by this incubator. The dimensions of the services provided by incubators (infrastructure, professional services and network) and the attributes of these dimensions were selected based on previous studies. These attributes were used in the construction of the interview script and results analysis, aided by qualitative data analysis software for researchers, called NVivo® from QSR International Pty Ltd. The coding was developed based on 146 citations from interviews. High importance was attached to the infrastructure, which was evaluated as excellent. The professional services have received less importance, but they need to be improved. Despite the importance attached to the network, no robust actions were reported by the incubator. The analysis of clusters (or groupings) resulted in a group with hardware companies and another with software companies, resulting in two importance and performance matrixes being built. These matrices suggest the improvement of incubator performance in promotional activities to internal and external network. For hardware developers, access to laboratories is added. The study contributes to investigate the quality of services offered by incubators, especially when using importance and performance matrix.

How to use importance-performance analysis (IPA)-based SWOT analysis as a new quantitative methodology for developing actual strategic plans in universities

“…This is due to that IPA has varied applications that employs many tools according to the purpose of the application and the possibility of obtaining all the required information. Some studies have used IPA to identify the internal factors of the institution (strengths and weaknesses) to develop strategic improvement plans to raise the quality of services or products (Ford et al 1991;Lai and To 2010;Zhao and Jinwei 2011;Taplin 2012;Wu and Hsieh 2012;Sörensson and von Friedrichs 2013;Lee et al 2015;Ramírez-Hurtado 2017;Sörensson 2017;Godeiro et al 2018). Other studies have used IPA to identify the internal and external factors of the institution (SWOT) to develop strategic improvement plans to improve the quality of its services or products (Feng 2010;Akbar et al 2018).…”

Capability Assessment toward Sustainable Development of Business Incubators: Framework and Experience Sharing

“…The core function of business incubators is to support incubatees to survive and thrive in the market through the delivery of service excellence [46][47][48][49]. This dimension of services employs the Customer Satisfaction Model developed by Zeithaml et al [50].…”

O Processo de Incubação Auxilia no Desenvolvimento das Capacidades Adaptativa, Absortiva e Inovativa? Estudos de Casos Múltiplos na Região do Triângulo Mineiro e Alto Paranaíba

“…No que tange à oferta de condições propícias para a implantação de novos negócios e empreendimentos, as incubadoras de empresa, aceleradoras e parques tecnológicos oferecem diversos serviços e apoio para as empresas atendidas, seja pela disponibilização de infraestrutura física, logística e de comunicação, acesso a laboratórios e tecnologias, ou provendo qualificação gerencial, estimulando a criação de conexões e redes de contatos (Raupp, & Beuren, 2011;Godeiro;Dantas;Silva, & Celestino, 2018).…”

“…Para o Sebrae ( 2017), as incubadoras de empresa podem ser classificadas como incubadoras de base tecnológica, de setores tradicionais, mistas, de empresas de agronegócios, de cooperativas, de empresas culturais, de design e social, isso de acordo com a especialidade e foco de atuação, recursos disponíveis e redes de parcerias. Quanto à localização, a maioria está instalada em terrenos de universidades e institutos de pesquisa (Anprotec, 2012;Godeiro et al, 2018), sendo que a maioria das entidades apoiadoras, gestoras ou estruturantes das incubadoras, aceleradoras e parques tecnológicos está vinculada ao setor público ou instituições de ensino públicas e privadas (Anprotec, 2017).…”

“…www Para encerrar a fundamentação teórica aqui utilizada, faz-se necessário apresentar como a abordagem das capacidades dinâmicas relaciona-se e pode servir de quadro de referência teórico para analisar a relação entre incubadora e empresas incubadas, no que tange ao desenvolvimento de vantagens competitivas. Tem-se que as empresas de base tecnológica estão expostas a ambientes dinâmicos e incertos, com base de atuação na inovação de produtos e serviços (Andino, 2005;Iacono, Almeida, & Nagano, 2011;Godeiro et al, 2018). Segundo Teece et al (1997) e Teece et al (2016), os melhores desempenhos organizacionais são obtidos por aquelas empresas com maior aptidão e capacidade de responder rapidamente ao ambiente.…”