The graduation performance of technology business incubators in China’s three tier cities: the role of incubator funding, technical support, and entrepreneurial mentoring

Li Xiao () and David North ()
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Li Xiao: Lancaster University Management School
David North: Middlesex University

The Journal of Technology Transfer, 2017, vol. 42, issue 3, No 8, 615-634

Abstract: Abstract This study examines the effects of technology business incubator (TBI)’s funding, technical support and entrepreneurial mentoring on the graduation performance of new technology-based firms in China’s three tier cities. Using a new dataset on all TBIs and incubated new technology-based firms from government surveys conducted over five consecutive years from 2009 to 2013 combined with archival and hand-collected data, we find the effects of incubator services on the early growth of new technology-based firms vary according to the local context. Technical support facilities and entrepreneurial mentoring from TBIs are found to have significantly and positively influenced the early development of the firms in the four most affluent tier 1 cities, whilst these effects become less pronounced for the tier 2 and tier 3 cities. These two services are also found to influence graduation performance in the government and university types of TBI respectively. Results support the notion that the effectiveness of an incubator’s services is shaped by the level of a city’s socio-economic development and that the city location of a TBI does impact the graduation performance of its incubatees.

Keywords: Graduation performance; TBIs; New technology-based firms; Incubator research facilities; funding and mentoring; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O3 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (14)

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DOI: 10.1007/s10961-016-9493-4

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