This research is designed to distinguish and describe or explain incubator practices that affect the performance of incubator clients of university technology incubator programs. The research focuses on understanding which practices significantly contribute to increasing job creation for the firms located in university based technology incubators. An increasing number of communities are embracing economic development strategies that target the high tech sector with high wage, high value jobs as a way to diversify their economies and boost local and regional economies. New economic development strategies include the notion of a creation strategy or "growing your own" instead of relying on recruiting of existing companies from other regions. In 1999-2000 (according to the most recent data), small businesses created three-quarters of U.S. net new jobs (2.5 million of the 3.4 million total). The small business percentage varies from year to year and reflects economic trends. Over the decade of the 1990s, small business net job creation fluctuated between 60 and 80 percent. Moreover, according to a Bureau of the Census working paper, start-ups in the first two years of operation accounted for virtually all of the net new jobs in the economy. The study is broken into three parts: (1) a review of the literature on incubation, focusing on its history, best practices, technology incubation, networking theory, and previous empirical studies (2) a review of previous data collected in a recent national survey and (3) case studies of the top performing incubators in the country based on employment growth of client firms contracted with case studies from non-top ten programs. The literature suggests that the study of incubation must be considered in the context of a larger enterprise development system of which the incubator will fill gaps in the larger regional enterprise development system. This notion is explored. In general, there is a great need for more empirical research into best practice of incubation. It is a non trivial task however as the nature of the industry limits the ability to obtain traditional, statistically defendable, measures.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-26T20:48:31Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Herida Cristina Tavares.pdf: 1351959 bytes, checksum: dc3af4d2ae29e463f60d8e1d70db81fd (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-11-25 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / The objective of this thesis is to analyze the process of creating and transferring knowledge in technological business incubators in view of the innovation process. Thus, to investigate what are the sources of knowledge and what level of generation and transfer of knowledge relevant to innovation in the Technology Incubator of Guarulhos. In particular, the work proposes to examine the modes of knowledge creation and transfer of intra and interincubator and the incubator environment is favorable for the creation and transfer of knowledge. The research procedure used is a literature search. For further research, a case study is also conducted by means of data collection, in which the chief administrator of each incubated company answer a semi-structured questionnaire. The results of this study, with their limited sample size, have no statistical validity to the technology incubator of Guarulhos in general. But shows that formal networks of knowledge are the sources of knowledge more relevant to the development of innovative products or processes of the incubated companies. Another conclusion is that the level of knowledge transfer is directly linked to the level of interaction between enterprises and other agents, either within or outside the incubator. So, about knowledge transfer intra-incubator was found that the level of interaction is low. In an inter-incubator is also low, with few companies having some kind of agreement for cooperation with industry, universities or research centers / O objetivo desta dissertação é analisar o processo de criação e a transferência de conhecimento em incubadoras tecnológicas de empresas, tendo em vista o processo de inovação. Desta forma, investigar quais são as fontes de conhecimento e qual o nível de geração e transferência de conhecimento relevante para a inovação na Incubadora Tecnológica de Guarulhos. Em especial, o trabalho propõe-se a analisar os modos de criação e transferência de conhecimento intraincubadora e interincubadora e se o ambiente da incubadora é favorável para a criação e transferência de conhecimento. O procedimento de pesquisa utilizado é uma pesquisa bibliográfica. Para aprofundar a investigação, um estudo de caso é também realizado, por meio da coleta de dados, no qual o principal gestor de cada empresa incubada responde um questionário semi-estruturado. Os resultados desse estudo, com suas limitações de tamanho de amostra, não têm validade estatística para a incubadora tecnológica de Guarulhos, em geral, mas evidencia que as fontes de conhecimento mais relevantes para o desenvolvimento de produtos ou processos inovativos das empresas incubadas são as redes formais de conhecimento. Outra conclusão é que o nível de transferência de conhecimento está diretamente ligado ao nível de interação das empresas com os demais agentes, seja dentro ou fora da incubadora. Desta forma, com relação à transferência de conhecimento intraincubadora verificou-se que o nível de interação é baixo. Na forma interincubadora também é baixo, com poucas empresas tendo algum tipo de acordo de cooperação com indústrias, universidades ou centros de pesquisa

The present study was carried out in the Technologic Incubator of Santa Maria (ITSM), with the aim of analyzing the influence of incubation process on the characteristics and the entrepreneurial learning, in perception of business managers who experience this process in the ITSM. For this, the data were collected through the application of the questionnaire developed by David McClelland (1972) about CCE's and achievement of semi-structured interviews with eight business managers incubated. The questions addressed in the interview had focus on life history, professional trajectory, incubation process and learning entrepreneurial, this latest obeying the assumptions proposed by Politis (2005). For the data analysis used the approach described by Sampieri (2006), analyzing qualitatively the questionnaires applied, and content analysis of the interviews, based on Bardin (2011).The analysis categories were defined a priori: the process of incubation, entrepreneurial characteristics and entrepreneurial learning. The defined categories of analysis not a priori, based on reports of respondents were: perceived demands and interaction needs. It is stressed that the objective of the study was answered fully, in function of which, from the perspective of incubated, the ITSM provided development opportunities for these entrepreneurs, and also for their businesses, stimulating learning them through an experiential character. As contribution, from results obtained, developed a plan of action for the ITSM, in order to reduce the demands perceived by incubated about the incubation process. / O presente trabalho foi realizado na incubadora tecnológica de Santa Maria (ITSM), com o intuito de analisar a influência do processo de incubação sobre as características e a aprendizagem empreendedoras, na percepção de gestores de negócios que vivenciam este processo na ITSM. Para isso, os dados foram coletados por meio da aplicação do questionário desenvolvido por David McClelland (1972) sobre CCE´s e da realização de entrevistas semiestruturadas com oito gestores de negócios incubados. Os questionamentos abordados na entrevista tiveram foco na história de vida, trajetória profissional, processo de incubação e aprendizagem empreendedora, esta última obedecendo às premissas propostas por Politis (2005). Para a análise dos dados utilizou-se a abordagem descrita por Sampieri (2006), analisando-se qualitativamente os questionários aplicados, e técnica de análise de conteúdo das entrevistas, baseada em Bardin (2011). As categorias de análise definidas a priori foram: processo de incubação, características empreendedoras e aprendizagem empreendedora. As categorias de análise definidas não a priori, com base nos relatos dos entrevistados, foram: demandas percebidas e necessidades de interação. Destaca-se que o objetivo do estudo foi atendido plenamente, em função de que, a partir da perspectiva dos incubados, a ITSM proporcionou oportunidades de desenvolvimento para estes indivíduos, bem como para seus negócios, estimulando a aprendizagem dos mesmos por meio de um caráter experiencial. Como contribuição, a partir dos resultados obtidos, elaborou-se um plano da ação para a ITSM, com o objetivo de reduzir as demandas percebidas pelos incubados, acerca do processo de incubação.