An online assessment and development tool for business incubators: optimising business-incubation management practice, performance and impact, Project Report

This project is focused on exchanging knowledge between ABS, UKBI and managers of business incubators in the UK. The project relates to exploitation of extant knowledge-base on assessing and improving business incubation management practice and performance and builds on two earlier studies. It addresses a pressing need for assessing and benchmarking business incubation input, process and outcome performance and highlighting best practice.
The overarching aim of this project was to obtain proof-of-concept for a business incubation performance assessment and benchmarking online tool, fine-tune it and put it in use by nurturing a community of business incubation management practice, aligned by the resultant tool. The purpose was to offer an appropriate set of measures, in areas identified by relevant research on business incubation performance management and impact as critical, against which:
1.The input and process performance of business incubation management practice can be assessed and benchmarked within the auspices of a community of incubator managers concerned with best practice
2.The outcome performance and impact of business incubators can be assessed longitudinally.
As such, the developed online assessment framework is geared towards the needs of researchers, policy makers and practitioners concerned with business incubation performance, added value and impact.