Business Incubation: AReviewof ResearchOrientations, Impacts andDeterminants of Success

Abstract

The need and importance of Business Incubation are amply emphasized in the recently drafted National Entrepreneurship Policy for India. Business Incubators have been widely promoted and supported in the developed countries. A lot of research has been conducted on various aspects of business incubation in other countries but research on business incubation in the Indian context is in its nascent stage. The Purpose of this paper is to take stock of existing publications and identify the research gaps by systematically reviewing the literature on business incubators and business incubation. The Paper reviews a range of research publications on Business Incubation published during 1980-2012, sourced from EBSCO and PROQUEST databases, which describe incubator configurations, incubator-incubation impacts, critical success factors for incubation, incubator development, and incubatee development. It aims to provide an account of important perspectives from the literature which are likely to be of relevance to researchers, incubator managers and incubatee startups. The observations from of this paper can provide lessons for the private and government promoters of business incubation in India for the adoption of suitable and relevant models of business incubation. The paper also identifies possible areas of future study.