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Sustainability-Oriented Business Incubators
Linköping University, Department of Management and Engineering, Project Innovations and Entrepreneurship. Linköping University, Faculty of Science & Engineering.
2020 (English)Licentiate thesis, comprehensive summary (Other academic)
Abstract [en]

This thesis explores the attraction, selection, and support in sustainability-oriented business incubators. Business incubators as hatcheries for start-ups are considered key tools to enhance job creation and strengthen regional economies. While the world population grows and consumption of natural resources increases, the ecosystem services decline. If these issues are not properly addressed, the economic, social, and environmental pressures that are growing in our societies will lead to disasters and threats to humankind. Green incubators can implement sustainability thinking and the related principles in the start-up community right from the beginning, and hence play a significant role in reorienting start-up businesses towards sustainability.

This study shows the importance of making business incubators better known to their potential clients in order to increase visibility and attract more green tenants. The sustainability-oriented business incubators (SOBI), to have a better selection of tenants, need to attract more sustainable entrepreneurs in the first place. Moreover, the selection criteria affect the in-house atmosphere of the incubator, which in turn affects the attraction of more like-minded tenants to the incubator. In addition, word of mouth through partners and referrals by successfully graduated tenants, as well as expert management teams including coaches and consultants and their related networks and mediations, exert more influence on the attraction. In other words, the attraction is dependent both on the selection criteria and the support given to the tenants. To attract proper tenants, a rich local environment, regional and inter-regional collaboration, a well-planned, well-structured pre-incubation process, and credibility of incubators with managerial sustainability expertise and well-established networks are also essential.

When it comes to the selection processes, different factors affect the selection criteria, including business incubators’ goal and agenda such as job creation, diversification of the local economy, utilization of vacant property, commercialization of research, investment as well as owner and sponsors (including public and private), physical characters such as age, size, and occupancy rates. Furthermore, incubators might have different selection strategies such as rigorous-vs-flexible as well as entrepreneur-vs-idea priorities. The initial ambition of SOBIs is to select business ideas that are primarily geared towards sustainability. However, the empirical data has shown that it is not always achievable to attract a sufficient number of green tenants to meet those criteria. The challenges, for example, could be due to economic cycles, specialization, and high-bar (i.e., eligibility) criteria, location limits, lack of sustainable-minded entrepreneurs, and the like.

In recent years, increased awareness about sustainability issues and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as well as signals from green financiers, business owners, and other stakeholders, have forced many incubators to adjust their selection criteria to match sustainability requirements. However, empirical results show that the support given to tenants in green incubators has not been different from conventional ones. But more recently (especially during the past two-three years), institutional forces and the need for more legitimacy have led more and more incubators (even conventional ones) to change their mindset and provide more support towards sustainable business ideas. The conclusions of this study imply that business incubators need to strive for making sustainable entrepreneurs, not selecting them. In order to provide comprehensive sustainability-oriented support, SOBIs need to recruit sustainability experts and educate management teams as well as their tenants about sustainability issues.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Linköping: Linköping University Electronic Press, 2020. , p. 126
Series
Linköping Studies in Science and Technology. Licentiate Thesis, ISSN 0280-7971 ; 1883
Keywords [en]
sustainability, sustainable entrepreneurship, business incubator, sustainable entrepreneur, and sustainability-oriented business incubators
National Category
Environmental Management
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-168451ISBN: 9789179298159 (print)OAI: oai:DiVA.org:liu-168451DiVA, id: diva2:1460503
Supervisors
Funder
Swedish Research Council
Note

Ytterligare forskningsfinansiär: German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF)

Available from: 2020-08-24 Created: 2020-08-24 Last updated: 2020-09-07Bibliographically approved
List of papers
1. Tenant recruitment and support processes in sustainability-profiled business incubators
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Tenant recruitment and support processes in sustainability-profiled business incubators
2016 (English)In: Industry & higher education, ISSN 0950-4222, E-ISSN 2043-6858, Vol. 30, no 4, p. 267-277Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Recruitment and support processes in sustainability-profiled incubators have received little research attention. The article addresses this knowledge gap in an empirical investigation of three sustainability-oriented incubators in Sweden, Finland and Germany. The data are based on interviews with managers, stakeholders and tenants in Green Tech Park (Sweden), LADEC (Finland) and Green Garage (Germany). On average, the studied incubators had an ambition to recruit and develop sustainability-oriented start-ups, but the number of tenants must reach a critical mass if such ambitions are to become a reality. The local context influences this critical mass of start-ups and is a determining factor in generating (a) potential tenants and (b) the resources to support such firms. This suggests that incubator managers must actively seek tenants interested in sustainable entrepreneurship and that support must focus on activities in sustainability.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Sage Publications, 2016
Keywords
Eco-innovation, incubators, start-ups, sustainability, sustainable entrepreneurship
National Category
Business Administration Social Sciences Interdisciplinary
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-132724 (URN)10.1177/0950422216659567 (DOI)000442437500003 ()
Available from: 2016-11-21 Created: 2016-11-21 Last updated: 2020-08-24Bibliographically approved
2. Sustainability-profiled incubators and securing the inflow of tenants – the case of Green Garage Berlin
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Sustainability-profiled incubators and securing the inflow of tenants – the case of Green Garage Berlin
2017 (English)In: Journal of Cleaner Production, ISSN 0959-6526, E-ISSN 1879-1786, Vol. 157, p. 76-83Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Currently there is an attention in research and practise on entrepreneurial ecosystems, and how these, often using incubators, could support sustainable development through new firm start-ups. Despite the popularity of incubators in the literature and practise, few studies have focused on sustainable incubators in general or, more specifically, on processes that ensure a steady flow of tenants. Thus, this paper investigates how sustainable incubators ensures their inflow of tenants, how they organize their activities and whether the incubator environment affect tenant recruitment. A case study approach analysing the sustainability oriented incubator Green Garage Berlin have been used to generate an understanding of selection and recruitment processes as well the influence of external environments. The results show that regional and inter-regional co-operation, together with a well-planned, structured pre-incubation process, are requirements for securing an inflow of tenants to sustainable incubators. Incubator reputation and sufficient long term funding is also a key to success. A good practice case as Green Garage cannot simply be replicated, but require openness to continue the learning process and adapting the knowledge to be transferred to local conditions.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Amsterdam: Elsevier, 2017
Keywords
Business incubators; pre-incubation; tenant selection; incubator environment; entrepreneurship support services
National Category
Social Sciences Interdisciplinary Business Administration Business Administration Production Engineering, Human Work Science and Ergonomics
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-136822 (URN)10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.04.123 (DOI)000405883600008 ()
Projects
SHIFT/Formas/Econovera
Funder
Swedish Research Council Formas
Note

Funding agencies: Formas (The Swedish Research Council) [253-2011-2152]; German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) through ECO-INNOVERA as part of SHIFT project [033E001]

Available from: 2017-04-27 Created: 2017-04-27 Last updated: 2020-08-24Bibliographically approved
3. Incubator specialization and size: Divergent paths towards operational scale
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Incubator specialization and size: Divergent paths towards operational scale
2020 (English)In: Technological forecasting & social change, ISSN 0040-1625, E-ISSN 1873-5509, Vol. 151, p. 1-13, article id 119821Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Research on incubators show that size is important in achieving efficiency and networking benefits for clients. However, little research has focused on what factors influence incubator size. We theorize and show partial support for size benefits to incubator specialization. Analyses of the relationship between size and four distinct specialization strategies in a sample of 96 European incubators show that incubator size is positively related to a strategic focus on universities and research institutes as recruitment channels and to a focus on sustainability, but unrelated to industry focus. Incubator size was found to be negatively related to a regional focus. While sustainability focused incubators tended to not find recruitment challenging, paradoxically, among those who did, the most frequently reported challenges were related to finding tenants that focus on sustainability. Post-hoc analyses revealed that tenants with a focus other than sustainability often dominate sustainability-oriented incubators, suggesting that sustainability may be more of a legitimating strategy than an explicit selection criterion.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Elsevier, 2020
Keywords
Business incubator, Industry, Region, University, Sustainability, Specialization, Focus, Size
National Category
Business Administration Learning Environmental Sciences
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-162676 (URN)10.1016/j.techfore.2019.119821 (DOI)000509818900006 ()2-s2.0-85076246112 (Scopus ID)
Note

Funding agencies: Formas (The Swedish Research Council)Swedish Research CouncilSwedish Research Council Formas [253-2011-2152]; German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) through ECO-INNOVERAFederal Ministry of Education & Research (BMBF) [033E001]; Ragnar So

Available from: 2019-12-16 Created: 2019-12-16 Last updated: 2021-12-13Bibliographically approved

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