Abstract This is the first part of our three part comparative study of Technology Business Incubators (TBIs) in China and India. For this we employ the integrative framework developed by Mian (1997) and its adaptation to analyzing the performance of TBI, which uses three sets of variables for analysis: management and operational policies, services, and performance outcomes of TBI. The determinants we introduce into Mians‟s model highlight the financial, networking and organizational aspects of the incubation system. We present an overview comparison of TBIs in China and India which provides an overall understanding of TBI environment in these two emerging economies. We mainly focus on: objectives, structure and governance of incubators, selection of tenants/incubatees, funding for incubators and tenants, services provided by incubators, performance and outcomes. By analyzing the contexts for their emergence in both countries, we identify similarities and differences between the two systems and explore the reasons for performance differences. This paper prepares the ground for the next stages of the research which involves national surveys of TBIs and tenants to explore the strength and weaknesses of the TBIs in these two countries and compare the success or failures of incubatees/ tenants of incubators in China and India which will help to identify policy learning for both countries in particular and also for other developing countries in general. The contribution of our paper is twofold: first, the adaptation of the integrative framework developed by Mian (1997) and the second, the comparative study of two major emerging economies which fills an important gap in the TBI literature.