Role of Business Incubators as a Tool for Entrepreneurship Development: The Mediating and Moderating Role of Business Start-Up and Government Regulations

Cai Li, Naveed Ahmed, Sikandar Ali Qalati, Asadullah Khan and Shumaila Naz
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Cai Li: School of Management, Department of Management Science & Engineering, Jiangsu University, 301 Xuefu Road, Jingkou District, Zhenjiang, Jiangsu 212000, China
Naveed Ahmed: School of Management, Department of Management Science & Engineering, Jiangsu University, 301 Xuefu Road, Jingkou District, Zhenjiang, Jiangsu 212000, China
Sikandar Ali Qalati: School of Management, Department of Marketing, Jiangsu University, 301 Xuefu Road, Jingkou District, Zhenjiang, Jiangsu 212000, China
Asadullah Khan: Department of Business Management, Karakoram International University Gilgit, District Gilgit 15100, Pakistan
Shumaila Naz: Faculty of Business and Management Sciences, The Superior College 20 km riwand Road, Lahore 54000, Pakistan

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 5, 1-23

Abstract: Business incubators create value by combining the entrepreneurial spirit of start-ups with the resources that are typically available to new businesses. It is widely recognized that knowledge-based entrepreneurial companies are the main creators of economic growth, and such enterprises require special business development services. Therefore, the study aims to examine the role of business incubators in providing greater services (networking services, capital support, and training programs) in entrepreneurship development. Secondly, it also examines the mediating and moderating role of business start-up and government regulations for entrepreneurship. Using a quantitative methodology, we examine 567 samples through structural equation modeling. We find that the business incubators are playing an effective mediating role in providing networking services, capital support, and training programs to individuals and entrepreneurs, which are significant for entrepreneurship development, whereas business start-up positively mediates the relationship between networking services, capital support, training programs, and entrepreneurship development. Government regulations for entrepreneurship have a direct effect on entrepreneurship development. More importantly, government regulations for entrepreneurship have a positive moderating effect between business start-up and entrepreneurship development. Our study identifies the critical resources needed to improve the quality of business incubators and to ensure the availability of such resources to improve entrepreneurship development.

Keywords: business start-up; capital support; government regulations for entrepreneurship; networking services; entrepreneurship development; training programs (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (16)

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