A Typology of University Business Incubators: Implications for Research and Practice

The use of incubators and accelerators as institutions to facilitate the development of new business ventures has exploded worldwide in recent years. In particular, there is significant growth in the numbers of university-based business incubators (UBIs), which are incubators housed at and closely integrated with the knowledge development and dissemination activities of universities. In addition to the common incubator objectives of company creation and economic wealth generation, these incubators therefore also have objectives related to student experiential education and the commercialization of university IP. This divergence of stakeholder objectives creates unique challenges for UB1s, which have been addressed through a wide range of structures, processes and management models. This paper is an attempt to bring greater clarity to this situation by proposing a typology of UBIs, based on broad review of the UBI literature and data from incubator management practitioners. The typology examines UBIs from the perspectives of Stakeholders, Objectives, Strategic Focus, Incubation Processes, Resources and Services provided, and the resulting Socioeconomic Effects. Use of a clarifying typology by future researchers should help guide future UBI research by suggesting potential linkages between the context of different universities and the appropriate UBI types. This should lead to more valuable insights than current "one size fits all" isomorphic approaches to UBI management.