Business incubators and accelerators: a co-citation analysis-based, systematic literature review

Abstract

A long and rich research tradition exists on the phenomenon of business incubators since this kind of venture support institution first emerged. One can observe an increasing heterogeneity of incubation beyond the traditional mainstream focus on regional development and university-based incubators. In the last decade, in particular the phenomenon of accelerators as a particular form of incubators received increasing research interest. A few literature reviews started summarizing the field, but left some important issues unanswered. This systematic review study contributes to this effort deriving current themes and a research agenda. We find that open innovation and social capital theory increasingly complement the resource-based view as frameworks to understand business incubation. Moreover, the phenomenon of private corporate incubators and accelerators gains traction, both in entrepreneurship theory and practice.

Cómo las aceleradoras de empresas fomentan las capacidades dinámicas de las start-ups: un estudio de caso

“…Given the newness of the business accelerator phenomenon, there is a limited academic literature about these entities (Hausberg and Korreck, 2018). What is known about accelerators is based on the small number of peer-reviewed articles in which entrepreneurship scholars have been focused on examining them in order to reach a definition and distinguishing features (e.g Fishback et al, 2007;Cohen, 2013;Barbero et al, 2014;Hoffman and Radojevich-Kelley, 2012) or a taxonomy (e.g Cohen and Hochberg, 2014;Dempwolf et al, 2014;Hoffman and Radojevich-Kelley, 2012;Pauwels et al, 2016).…”

Fostering innovation at University of Debrecen

“…Incubators are growing worldwide having similar infrastructure and graduation policies, while differing in their selection strategies, business support services and mediation offering (Bergek, A.-Norrman, C. (2008), Hausberg, J.P. -Korreck, S. (2018)).…”

Framing Open Innovation in Start-Ups’ Incubators: A Complexity Theory Perspective

“…Hausberg and Korreck [9] argue that Open Innovation represents a promising theoretical lens in understanding the determinants and implications of business incubators. This kind of infrastructure sustains the creation and growth of new entrepreneurial teams by offering them access to purposive flows of knowledge and a supportive environment for experimentation and interdependence and, therefore, learning from the integration of this knowledge into the development of their business [21][22][23].…”

“…Beyond the provision of basic services and facilities, business support services and networking activities (i.e., the intangible aspects) are gaining relevance in the business models of incubators [9,20]. Connections and knowledge-intensive services opportunities are identified and built both inside and outside the incubator's boundaries [20,25].…”

“…The value proposition of the business incubators [8] includes basic services such as the offering of facilities and services shared among the tenant start-ups, mentoring, coaching, and access to external sources of innovation through institutionalized networks to guide the entrepreneurial teams through their development process. In their recent literature review, Hausberg and Korreck [9] argue that a promising research direction is the adoption of open innovation as a perspective to understand the incubators and their innovation environment. Previous contributions have mainly focused on the study of the practices and services offered by the incubators from the perspective of their value offer [8] or the model adopted in running their business [10].…”