The purpose of this paper is to evaluate effectiveness of business incubator process models employed in government-funded incubators operating in the emerging markets countries, using South Africa as an example. This research paper aims to add to literature on the incubator process evaluation stream of studies. Furthermore, it proposes a process effectiveness model based on the integration of organizational diagnosis theory on organizational effectiveness as well the real options theory of the incubator process. This study employs a qualitative study method based on interviews with 10 business incubator managers of the only government sanctioned Small Enterprise Development Agency in South Africa. Data was collected and analysed qualitatively. The researcher proposes an incubator process effectiveness evaluation framework with dimensions that are suitable for an emerging market context.</p / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

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Innovative newly qualified graduates need to proof themselves to the world through their God-given talents and ideas and can only really put their name on the map by starting their own company. Graduates being compelled to join a company to attain, over a number of years, the necessary capital investment and business skills, cannot flourish and reach their full potential whilst being overshadowed by the company. There is a need for an interface between the university and the industry, a middle ground and an incubator where newly graduates can be nurtured into maturity in order to be independent. An opportunity for innovative entrepreneurs to start his/her own company by providing them with the necessary services and conveniences, immediate and grand exposure as well as training in the field of business management. Lynnwood Road as the front facade of the University of Pretoria, forms the visual interface with the public sector. Lynnwood Road is a narrative journey describing the translating of information being offered by the University of Pretoria. This narrative is formed in each person's own thoughts driving along Lynnwood Road, but the narrative is incomplete as it is without a conclusion. There isn't a building that serves as an exhibition space for the university to display the products and innovations that comes from absorbing years of information at the University of Pretoria. / Dissertation (MArch(Prof))--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Architecture / unrestricted

Over the past two decades, the South African economy has witnessed a decrease in its capacity to recruit new entrants into the formal labour market. South Africa’s economy is not producing enough employment opportunities to accommodate the influx of annual new entrants into the labour market, such as school leavers. As a result of the inadequate ability of South Africa’s formal labour market to absorb new entrants, coupled with the rising youth unemployment, the South African government has prioritised the development of small, medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs) and entrepreneurship as a means to combat these challenges. Entrepreneurship, as a recognised intervention for the development and growth of an economy through the creation of jobs and poverty alleviation, is an important topic in business literature. Many countries around the world are increasingly recognising the significant contributions that SMMEs make to the employment and income generation aspects of the economy. Despite the contributions that SMMEs and small organisations (SOs), including small service organisations (SSOs), make to the economy, they have multiple difficulties to overcome. While SOs are viewed as powerful mechanisms that contribute to economic development and growth through increasing employment opportunities and wealth, they face certain obstacles that impede their growth potential and, sometimes, even lead to failure. Business incubators are organisations established to support SOs and SMMEs and are recognised as making a significant contribution to reducing business failure. South Africa and countries all over the world are beginning to appreciate the value of incubators as salient institutions that support small organisations. Various forms of business incubators have been developed, including university business incubators (UBIs) which provide support for potential entrepreneurs through ensuring that mentoring, financing, networks and business training is available. Business incubators offer incubation programmes, which include a variety of services and networking resources, to incubates. Whilst numerous studies have been done on the services that incubators offer incubates in the international context, limited research has been conducted on the services that entrepreneurs require from a UBI in the South African context. The primary objective of this study was to determine the essential incubator services that small service organisations require from UBIs within the South African context in order to guide the formation of policy objectives, marketing strategies and marketing procedures. The target population relevant to this study was defined as owners/managers of small service organisations situated in the Vaal Triangle region of South Africa. The sampling frame for the study comprised a list of small service organisations situated in the Vaal Triangle region, as obtained from the Vaal Triangle Info Business Directory. From this sampling frame, a non-probability judgement sample of 125 owners/managers of SSOs in the auto, estate agents and property management, health care and beauty, hospitality and accommodation, and professional service industry sectors was drawn. An unsolicited calling approach was followed, whereby the researcher personally visited each small service organisation individually to request permission to partake in the study. Thereafter, self-administered questionnaires were delivered for completion by the relevant owners/managers of each participating SSO, which were collected thereafter. In order to measure their perceptions of essential UBI services, participants were requested to indicate on a six-point Likert scale the level of unimportance or importance of 41 services. The owners/managers‟ perceptions of the importance of the six UBI service constructs over the business life-cycle phases were measured using multiple-choice questions, whereby the participants were asked to choose one of the five alternatives provided. The owners/managers‟ perceived value of UBI services was measured using dichotomous questions. In addition, certain demographical data were requested from the participants. The findings of this study indicate that the owners/managers of SSOs perceive UBI services as being important. They indicated networking and professional services as the most important UBI services, followed by management services, general business services, physical facilities and financial consulting services, of which university services were perceived as being the least important. The findings suggest that the UBI services were mostly required in the pre-start-up, start-up and growth phases of the SSO‟s business life-cycle phases. While UBI services were deemed important by both young and mature organisations, the owners/managers of young organisations perceived management services as more important than those of more mature organisations. In terms of the perceived value of UBI services, the findings reveal that although owners/managers perceived the UBI services to be important, they expressed minimal interest in utilising those services. Based on the participants‟ level of agreement concerning the perceived importance of UBI services, cluster analysis revealed two clusters, namely Cluster 1 and Cluster 2. The participants in Cluster 1, comprising more female participants and young organisations, perceived the UBI services as more important than those participants in Cluster 2. Since the idea of UBIs is relatively new in South African, and given that they have yet to prove their value to industry, getting stakeholders to buy into the concept remains a daunting task. Insights gained from this study will help business incubators, universities, government and other stakeholders understand current entrepreneurs‟ perceptions towards the important UBI services required by SSOs. This, in turn, will help guide UBIs in the formation of their policy objectives, marketing strategies and marketing procedures. / PhD (Marketing Management)--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2015.

Over the past two decades, the South African economy has witnessed a decrease in its capacity to recruit new entrants into the formal labour market. South Africa’s economy is not producing enough employment opportunities to accommodate the influx of annual new entrants into the labour market, such as school leavers. As a result of the inadequate ability of South Africa’s formal labour market to absorb new entrants, coupled with the rising youth unemployment, the South African government has prioritised the development of small, medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs) and entrepreneurship as a means to combat these challenges. Entrepreneurship, as a recognised intervention for the development and growth of an economy through the creation of jobs and poverty alleviation, is an important topic in business literature. Many countries around the world are increasingly recognising the significant contributions that SMMEs make to the employment and income generation aspects of the economy. Despite the contributions that SMMEs and small organisations (SOs), including small service organisations (SSOs), make to the economy, they have multiple difficulties to overcome. While SOs are viewed as powerful mechanisms that contribute to economic development and growth through increasing employment opportunities and wealth, they face certain obstacles that impede their growth potential and, sometimes, even lead to failure. Business incubators are organisations established to support SOs and SMMEs and are recognised as making a significant contribution to reducing business failure. South Africa and countries all over the world are beginning to appreciate the value of incubators as salient institutions that support small organisations. Various forms of business incubators have been developed, including university business incubators (UBIs) which provide support for potential entrepreneurs through ensuring that mentoring, financing, networks and business training is available. Business incubators offer incubation programmes, which include a variety of services and networking resources, to incubates. Whilst numerous studies have been done on the services that incubators offer incubates in the international context, limited research has been conducted on the services that entrepreneurs require from a UBI in the South African context. The primary objective of this study was to determine the essential incubator services that small service organisations require from UBIs within the South African context in order to guide the formation of policy objectives, marketing strategies and marketing procedures. The target population relevant to this study was defined as owners/managers of small service organisations situated in the Vaal Triangle region of South Africa. The sampling frame for the study comprised a list of small service organisations situated in the Vaal Triangle region, as obtained from the Vaal Triangle Info Business Directory. From this sampling frame, a non-probability judgement sample of 125 owners/managers of SSOs in the auto, estate agents and property management, health care and beauty, hospitality and accommodation, and professional service industry sectors was drawn. An unsolicited calling approach was followed, whereby the researcher personally visited each small service organisation individually to request permission to partake in the study. Thereafter, self-administered questionnaires were delivered for completion by the relevant owners/managers of each participating SSO, which were collected thereafter. In order to measure their perceptions of essential UBI services, participants were requested to indicate on a six-point Likert scale the level of unimportance or importance of 41 services. The owners/managers‟ perceptions of the importance of the six UBI service constructs over the business life-cycle phases were measured using multiple-choice questions, whereby the participants were asked to choose one of the five alternatives provided. The owners/managers‟ perceived value of UBI services was measured using dichotomous questions. In addition, certain demographical data were requested from the participants. The findings of this study indicate that the owners/managers of SSOs perceive UBI services as being important. They indicated networking and professional services as the most important UBI services, followed by management services, general business services, physical facilities and financial consulting services, of which university services were perceived as being the least important. The findings suggest that the UBI services were mostly required in the pre-start-up, start-up and growth phases of the SSO‟s business life-cycle phases. While UBI services were deemed important by both young and mature organisations, the owners/managers of young organisations perceived management services as more important than those of more mature organisations. In terms of the perceived value of UBI services, the findings reveal that although owners/managers perceived the UBI services to be important, they expressed minimal interest in utilising those services. Based on the participants‟ level of agreement concerning the perceived importance of UBI services, cluster analysis revealed two clusters, namely Cluster 1 and Cluster 2. The participants in Cluster 1, comprising more female participants and young organisations, perceived the UBI services as more important than those participants in Cluster 2. Since the idea of UBIs is relatively new in South African, and given that they have yet to prove their value to industry, getting stakeholders to buy into the concept remains a daunting task. Insights gained from this study will help business incubators, universities, government and other stakeholders understand current entrepreneurs‟ perceptions towards the important UBI services required by SSOs. This, in turn, will help guide UBIs in the formation of their policy objectives, marketing strategies and marketing procedures. / PhD (Marketing Management)--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2015.

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.

Incubators are organizations that have become a key factor to the success of new ventures. One study jointly sponsored by the University of Michigan, Ohio University, the National Business Incubation Association, and the Southern Technology Council found that 87% of the firms that went through an incubator program remain in business and 84% remain in their community. Clearly properly run incubators can provide much benefit. However there is littleconsensus on goals and best practices for managing the incubators themselves. Recently an approach to integrating strategy and practice called the balanced scorecard (BSC) has emerged asa popular tool in many public and private organizations. The purpose of this thesis is to examine the BSC as a potential performance andmanagement tool for Incubators in Florida. While the list of major corporations and public institutions that has adopted some form of a balanced scorecard continues to grow, there has been no research into its adaptability to incubators. This thesis found potential benefits associated with applying the BSC model to incubators, such as maintaining incubator's competitiveness and improving communication and employee's performance. Because a full-scale balanced scorecard system entails a fairly intensive implementation effort, it cannot be prescribed randomly across the variety of incubator enterprises. Accordingly, a stage of development framework is employed to help categorize incubators, assess their respective planning needs and identify how the balanced scorecard approach can be applied beneficially. Under these parameters, it is proposed that for incubators where both the degree of managerial complexity and the prospects for extensive change are high, the balanced scorecard can be a useful mechanism for effective management. A number of important implementation issues are also explored and some directions for future research are identified.

Genom sin innovation har entreprenörer en viktig roll i samhället för att skapa affärsmöjligheter och föra ekonomin framåt. Entreprenörer stöter ofta på svårigheter när de startar företag, exempelvis begränsade resurser och brist på erfarenhet. Detta innebär att det är viktigt att entreprenörerna håller sig motiverade vid detta stadiumi den entreprenöriella processen. Till sin hjälp finns organisationer som kallas inkubatorer, vars funktion är att främja utvecklingen av nya affärsidéer.Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur inkubatorsupport påverkar entreprenörers motivation till att driva företag. För att skapa oss en förståelse har vi tagit fram forskning och teorier kring entreprenöriella egenskaper, begreppet motivation, vad som motiverar entreprenörer och vilket stödinkubatorer erbjuder. Detta för att undersöka hur inkubatorsupport påverkar entreprenörers motivation. Det finns ett gap i den befintliga forskningen angående vilken effekt inkubatorsupport har på entreprenörers motivation och sambandet mellan dessa. Vårt arbete är en kvalitativ studie där vi intervjuat entreprenörer och affärscoacher som i dagsläget befinner sig på inkubatorer. Detta har utförts på tre inkubatorer i Umeå. Vi har intervjuat totalt tio respondenter, varav sju entreprenörer och tre affärscoacher som arbetar på inkubatorer, för att skapa en förståelse för hur inkubatorsupport påverkar entreprenörernas motivation.Resultatet vår studie visar är att det finns vissa inkubatorsupport påverkar entreprenörernas motivation. Ett exempel är att inkubatorer bidrar med en entreprenöriell miljö, där vårt resultat tyder på att denna miljö även är motiverande för entreprenörer. Det uppkom även många motivationsfaktorer som vi inte kunnat identifiera i tidigare forskning, exempelvis att entreprenörerna får göra det de tycker är roligt. Utöver detta gav inkubatorer stödinom vissa områden som vi inte funnit i befintlig forskning, som att entreprenörerna erbjuds olika former av utbildning.Denna studie är av praktisk nytta för både entreprenörer och inkubatorer, samt samhället i stort. Entreprenörer har nytta av att veta hur deras motivation kommer påverkas av att vistas på en inkubator. Inkubatorer har nytta av denna studie genom att de får konkret forskning kring vilka stödentreprenörerna betraktar som mest värdefull. Studien kan även ha ett praktiskt bidrag till samhället genom att staten får veta vilken effekt inkubatorer har på entreprenörer. Entreprenörer är viktiga för ekonomisk utveckling, vilket styrker den praktiska nyttan av vår studie.

In modern, fast moving business environments it is crucial for established corporations to find new sources of innovativeness in order to secure their competitiveness and long-term survival. Startups could be such a new source of innovativeness. Unfortunately, it is difficult for startups and corporations to cooperate. Mostly, this is because of the companies’ organization and the different way they operate. To overcome this gap, corporations started to get engaged with business incubators. Even though this phenomenon can be observed in practice already, little research has been done to better understand the forms this collaboration could have or the motives leading to such a cooperation. By studying an incubator that is engaged with established companies in many different ways, various forms of relationships could be identified. Moreover, based on the descriptions of those types of collaboration and in depth interviews, the motives leading corporations and incubators to get involved in various ways could be identified. The empirical contribution of this thesis is to better understand how established corporations can get engaged with entrepreneurial activity and startups in particular.