Business incubation as a community of practice: an emergent cultural web

Simon Stephens and Kristel Miller

Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, 2022, vol. 34, issue 9-10, 890-910

Abstract: Research on business incubation has been dominated by studies exploring university-industry technology transfer and high technology accelerators. Less is known about Business Incubation Centres (BICs), specifically, how their formal and informal structures may impact upon client development. Drawing on concepts from the community of practice (CoP) literature and organizational culture, we explore if BICs can be considered to be CoPs. We also seek to unravel the key elements which underpin the culture of a BIC and how these elements may provide enabling or constraining conditions for a CoP to emerge. Through a qualitative methodology of regional-based BICs in Ireland, we illustrate how the amount of time spent on campus; the nature of the working week; the scalability of the enterprise; and the capacity of the enterprise to meet the criteria associated with high potential start-ups influences clients’ perceptions of the value of BICs. We provide new theoretical insights which suggest that BICs are a CoP with a culture that can be studied, captured, and illustrated. Practical and policy implications are suggested to enhance the effectiveness of BICs for both clients and regions.

Date: 2022
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/08985626.2022.2112761 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

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:taf:entreg:v:34:y:2022:i:9-10:p:890-910

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/TEPN20

DOI: 10.1080/08985626.2022.2112761

Access Statistics for this article

Entrepreneurship & Regional Development is currently edited by Professor Alistair Anderson

More articles in Entrepreneurship & Regional Development from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().