Best Practices for Kick-Starting Economies: A Comparison of University, Private, and Publicly Funded Business Incubators

Business incubators have long been touted as engines for growth of local economies. But paradoxically the management practices for business incubators varies widely. There is not a well-developed method for either measuring success or enabling the success of these incubators. Here, we address this issue by reporting the best practices as perceived by the managers of business incubators. In addition, we contrast best practices as perceived by managers for university, public sector, and private sector business incubators. Our findings demonstrate the thinking by business incubator managers regarding practices that lead to incubator success and show the contrast for the three types. By describing and sharing our findings, we aim to develop a dialog that will help business incubators to optimally impact their local economies.