Investigating and classifying clients' satisfaction with business incubator services

Abstract

Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to show that a business incubation/incubator program is an enterprise development strategy, aimed at accelerating the process of formation, development, survivability and growth of new enterprises by providing those new enterprises (clients) with a wide range of business assistance including physical facilities, business counselling and networking. This paper presents results of a research conducted to investigate the level of satisfaction/dissatisfaction of the clients with the provision of those assistance services. Design/methodology/approach -In this paper the level of clients' satisfaction/dissatisfaction with a service is calculated using a proposed framework in terms of the mean difference between the importance of the service and the effectiveness of incubator management in providing the respective service as perceived by the clients. Findings -The results in this paper indicate that clients were generally more satisfied with facility related services than the counselling and business networking assistances services. However, there are significant differences between the perceived importance attached to a number of facility related services and the effectiveness of those services, suggesting a variation of the level of clients' satisfaction. Originality/value -These findings have important implications for the management of business incubation programs, which are highlighted in this paper.

Improving business incubator service performance in China: the role of networking resources and capabilities

“…1080/02642069.2011.582498 these are highlighted as being the most significant resources and capabilities. The ability to derive advantage through an extended network appears to be advanced in the Chinese incubators and is aligned with desires of incubatees outlined by Abduh et al (2007).Based on these findings, Chinese incubators that build and accumulate bothInfrastructural and External Support Resources find themselves positioned to develop theirOperating and Networking Capabilities. These, in turn, can be used to support their incubatee development and improve the incubator's Service Performance.…”

“…At the most fundamental level this may be provision of land in the form of a technology park (Lalkaka & Abetti, 1999); flexible or prestigious premises; access to services, facilities, and equipment; supportive tenancy arrangements (Lee & Osteryoung, 2004;Reid & Garnsey, 1997); management and accounting assistance; and communications facilities (Vedovello & Godinho, 2003), all of which are recognised as valuable to incubatees. Further resources include services involving government grants and loans, general counselling and mentoring, access to external information and resources, and access to external business people (Abduh, D'Souza, Quazi, & Burley, 2007). These services involve higher levels of dissatisfaction, indicating that incubators developing these services must be careful to provide appropriate resources to improve service performance.…”

“…Funding is a particularly important concern during growth for entrepreneurial clients (Lindelöf & Löfsten, 2002;McAdam & McAdam, 2008;Sun, Ni, & Leung, 2007), so the knowledge of, and ability to, access information on how to secure funding becomes a critical resource to an incubator. Abduh et al (2007) asserts that assistance to gain government grants/loans was perceived as being the most important counselling-related incubation service and also the service incubatees perceived as being significant but poorly delivered by the incubator.Understanding applicable government policies and the ability to learn of changes and adapt advice given to incubatees represents a significant resource for Chinese incubators. The This is an electronic version of an article published as: Lin, D., .…”

“…Efficient processes are located on the SPA diagonal. Incubator services rely increasingly on professional teams and developing capabilities to formulate customised services (Abduh et al, 2007;Lendner, 2007;; incubators are shifting from a generic strategy and are improving through rapid NSD designed to facilitate accelerated incubation (Erikson & Gjellan, 2003). As this shift occurs new resources must be developed or sourced and new methods of accomplishing tasks must be devised as new capabilities are generated.…”

Commercialising Technical Innovation: Role of Business Incubators in Kerala

“…Based on our qualitative findings, we conclude that our initial model is ineffective, in the sense that it cannot fully explain the role of the incubators in facilitating entrepreneurship. Abduh [10] shows that a business incubation/incubator program is an enterprise development strategy, aimed at accelerating the process of formation, development, survivability and growth of new enterprises by providing those new enterprises (clients) with a wide range of business assistance including physical facilities, business counselling and networking. The incubator is the unit of analysis while incubation outcomes-measured in terms of incubate growth and financial performance at the time of incubator exit-provide indicators of success.…”