Business Incubation Centres in Universities and Their Role in Developing Entrepreneurial Ecosystem

Abstract

Given the potential of start-ups in wealth creation in an economy, universities can play a leading role in the entrepreneurial ecosystem. Our article focuses on the need to provide a strong impetus for establishing business incubation centres at universities for progressive creation of innovation start-ups. The study reviews the current status of business incubators affiliated with universities in India. It also explores the variables such as location, affiliation and ease of doing business which help facilitate innovation and entrepreneurship. An ontological perspective of objectivism whereby universities are seen to play a role in not just generation of knowledge but also in the development of an ecosystem where the knowledge is transferred to initiate new ventures is considered for the study. Based on the entire population of universities in India; 937 universities were considered for the study through the websites, and an analysis of the coherent and incoherent activities of these incubation centres was performed to check for the presence of entrepreneurship-related activities. Also, the ease of doing business rankings were mapped to assess whether they played a role in stimulating the setup of incubators.

The Role of Human Resource Education: An Essential Driver in Advancing Economic Progress through Entrepreneurship Exploration

“…Many universities in India have set up business incubators to foster innovation and entrepreneurship among students (Vardhan & Mahato, 2022). Institutions such as the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) and Indian Institute of Management (IIM) have business incubators that help students develop their business ideas.…”

Updating the Open Innovation Concept Based on Ecosystem Approach: Regional Aspects

“…Some authors find [111,112] India and Brazil to be quite close in their innovative development as they involve foreign capital and are highly different from Russia; the most remarkable example is Bangalore, Mumbai [113]. Furthermore, the attention in India focuses on advancing entrepreneurial ecosystems where business incubators and technology start-ups are in a central place [114,115]. In these systems, one of the major actors is foreign companies [116] such as Xerox Corp or Microsoft, which interact with other actors, such as domestic and foreign companies, universities, etc.…”

Innovation hub a venture for students’ entrepreneurial talents: a case of college of business education

“…Due to the practices gaps colleges and university are required to change the practices of attaching students to internships and field work to practice what has already been established instead focus to induce innovative entrepreneurial competencies (Theodoraki, Messeghem & Audretsch, 2021). However, advocated curriculum related gaps in appropriate procedures, approaches for fostering creativity, problem-solving, innovation skills research and development are principally core functions in most colleges and universities (Wu & Lantz, 2017;Rinkinen & Harmaakorpi, 2018;Vardhan & Mahato, (2022). It is for these reasons that colleges need to change the focus of curriculum implementation towards inculcating students originated innovative entrepreneurial ideas, thereafter incubate these entrepreneurial ideas to become real start-ups projects within and outside innovation hubs (Friederici, 2019;Hausberg & Korreck, 2018).…”