Towards a Unified Virtual Business Incubator Model: A Systematic Literature Review and Bibliometric Analysis

Roberto Vaz (), João Vidal de Carvalho and Sandrina Francisca Teixeira
Additional contact information
Roberto Vaz: CEOS.PP, Porto Accounting and Business School, Polytechnic Institute of Porto, S. Mamede de Infesta, 4465-004 Porto, Portugal
João Vidal de Carvalho: CEOS.PP, Porto Accounting and Business School, Polytechnic Institute of Porto, S. Mamede de Infesta, 4465-004 Porto, Portugal
Sandrina Francisca Teixeira: CEOS.PP, Porto Accounting and Business School, Polytechnic Institute of Porto, S. Mamede de Infesta, 4465-004 Porto, Portugal

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 20, 1-21

Abstract: Virtual business incubators have been highlighted for their positive impacts in fostering entrepreneurship and innovation in several business areas, contributing to sustainable economic growth and social development. However, despite their crucial roles, previous literature emphasizes that research concerning their business models has been largely ignored, and several important issues are still unaddressed. This article aims to contribute to filling this gap and advancing this field by providing the first bibliometric and systematic literature review, as far as the authors know, concerning virtual business incubator models. The main results reveal the following: that academic production is relatively new, fragmented, and develops under a diversity of research paths; the analyzed models ( n = 12) have only some dimensions in common and are proposed based on three different perspectives (business organization and management, information and communication systems, and user experience); there is not a virtual business incubator model more suitable to support digital businesses or startups creation. Based on the results, it is argued that there is a need to further develop a model towards a unified virtual business incubator by actively involving different stakeholders during its design. This research can help managers, academics, and other professionals interested in running virtual business incubator programs.

Keywords: entrepreneurship; virtual incubator; model; economic development; digital transformation; digital entrepreneurship; sustainable business; framework; systematic literature review; bibliometric analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/20/13205/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/20/13205/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:20:p:13205-:d:942279

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().