Are the resources provided by Business Incubators suitable to the needs of their customers?

Abstract

Highlights: Studies on business incubation reveal that little is known about what incubatees really want and need. What are their challenges? Are the available resources adequate to meet them? This work attempts to find methods to assist in answering these questions. Goal: The present study investigates the suitability of resources supplied by incubators to the needs of incubated firms with the goal of proposing a methodology to assess resources’ customer satisfaction and identify opportunities for satisfaction enhancement. Design/Methodology/Approach: The methodology integrates the research on Models and Typologies of incubators with the Resource-Based View and adopts a comparative customer-supplier framework aiming to enable a systemic approach to customer satisfaction. For validation purposes, empirical investigation was conducted in an incubator located in the metropolitan region of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Field investigation adopted mixed methods through semi-structured interviews and convenience sample selection. Results: The empirical testing shows the methodology meets its purposes. Findings on customer satisfaction indicate three clear opportunities towards its enhancement. Limitations of the investigation: The methodology was validated in one incubator with small population and sample. Practical Implications: The methodology applied to a single incubator provides in-house reference to satisfaction enhancement. Aiming further-reaching initiatives, the methodology should be evaluated on larger samples and tailored to address cross-incubator comparison. Originality/ Value: The method combines two stablished theoretical strands on incubation with a comparative customer-supplier approach. The resultant framework enables a systemic approach to customer satisfaction grounded in a set of field survey-collected information.