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- Comfortable but Not Brilliant: Exploring the Incubation Experience of Founders of Technology-Based StartupsPublication . Vaz, R.; Teixeira, Sandrina; Vidal De Carvalho, JoaoBusiness incubators have been highlighted as vital contributors and value-creation organizations to entrepreneurs during their venture developments by offering them multiple resources and specialized support. Notwithstanding, several authors call attention to the significant literature gap concerning research focusing on entrepreneurs’ daily lived incubation experiences to understand their perspectives on incubators. This study aims to explore which aspects are perceived as creating value or limiting the venture development of 16 founders of technology-based startups by interviewing them. Ultimately, it contributes valuable insights about incubation factors that enhance or hinder their overall incubation experience. It suggests that entrepreneurs consider intangible resources and social and relational aspects as the most enriching dimensions of their incubation experiences and concludes with the services they consider to be more important. Moreover, it also reveals negative aspects of the incubation experience, mostly related to the nonregular periodicity of mentoring sessions, training events provided by external entities, and issues while using services provided by external incubators’ partners. Several recommendations for enhancing the incubation experience, managerial implications, and opportunities for further research are discussed.
- Developing a digital business incubator model to Foster Entrepreneurship, Business Growth, and Academia–Industry ConnectionsPublication . Vaz, R.; Vidal de Carvalho, Joao; Teixeira, SandrinaThe roles and positive impacts of business incubators, including virtual ones, in promoting entrepreneurship and innovation in multiple industries, and their consequent contributions to fostering sustainable economic growth and social development, have been highly advocated in the extant literature. Nonetheless, several authors highlight the urgent need to further carry out research concerning these structures’ operation models by involving end users, since knowledge related to this phenomenon remains scant. This study sets out to convey the third phase of a broader research and development project following a design science research methodology. Ultimately, this contributes to the field by proposing a new virtual business incubator model with immediate practical applicability. This model was cocreated and validated with 23 incubator managers and startup founders from 15 business incubation centers during focus group sessions and organized into 8 dimensions concluded as fundamental in future digital incubation programs. Moreover, this study offers knowledgeable guidelines to support academics, practitioners, organization managers, or other professionals interested in building and running virtual business incubators. The main strengths and weaknesses of the proposed model are also highlighted, and several recommendations are provided to surpass the expected challenging stages of its implementation.
- Towards a Unified Virtual Business Incubator Model: A Systematic Literature Review and Bibliometric AnalysisPublication . Vaz, R.; Vidal De Carvalho, Joao; Teixeira, SandrinaVirtual 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.
- Design de uma framework digital de incubação de empresas: promover o empreendedorismo, o crescimento de negócios e as conexões academia-indústriaPublication . Vaz, R.; Vidal De Carvalho, Joao; Teixeira, SandrinaOs papéis e os impactos positivos que as incubadoras de empresas assumem na promoção do empreendedorismo e da inovação em múltiplas indústrias, incluindo as virtuais, e as suas consequentes contribuições para a promoção do crescimento económico sustentável e do desenvolvimento social, têm sido altamente salientados na literatura. No entanto, vários autores sublinham a necessidade premente de desenvolver a investigação relacionada com os modelos de funcionamento destas estruturas e envolver os utilizadores finais ao longo do processo, uma vez que o conhecimento relacionado com este fenómeno permanece escasso. Esta investigação incide na terceira fase do projeto de investigação da Incubadora Digital do CEOS.PP, desenvolvido segundo os princípios da metodologia de design science. Em última análise, este trabalho contribui para a área científica assinalada, propondo uma nova framework de criação e gestão de incubadoras digitais de empresas, com aplicabilidade prática imediata. Esta framework foi cocriada e validada com gestores de incubadoras e fundadores de startups de múltiplos centros de incubação de empresas durante sessões de focus group, estruturando-se em 8 dimensões consideradas fundamentais para futuros programas de incubação digital. Além disso, este estudo oferece recomendações baseadas na experiência diária dos participantes para apoiar académicos, investigadores, gestores de organizações e outros profissionais interessados em construir e gerir incubadoras de empresas em ambientes virtuais. Os principais pontos fortes e fracos da framework proposta são também destacados, discutindo-se, por fim, diversas recomendações para superar etapas identificadas previamente como críticas durante o processo da sua implementação.