Chris Eveleens MSc. (1984) is a PhD candidate at Utrecht University. His research focusses on sustainable entrepreneurship, start-up support, technological innovation systems, and energy transitions.

The impact of business incubation on the start-up proces

Starting and developing a new, innovative business (start-up) is a risky endeavour. To improve the performance of start-ups, business incubators and acceleration programmes provide support in exchange for ecquity, a loan, or a fixed fee. In some cases the support is publicly funded and free for start-ups. Incubators and accelerators offer support in the form of mentoring, training, workshops, financial support, office space and access to a professional netowork. Often the support organised in small batches of 4 - 10 start-ups. The idea is that this improves the performance of the start-ups.

While the programmes are designed to help the start-ups, it is unclear how the offered supporting mechanimsm affect the start-up process. Particularly, we lack a longitudinal and qualitative understanding of the interaction between the support programmes and the start-up process.

To better understand this interaction, Chris Eveleens studies the development of 11 start-ups for several months. While all the included start-ups have signed up for a support programme, not all have been accepted. Therefore, some of the start-ups are participating in one or several programmes, some have participted in a programme in the past, and some have never partipated in a support programme. The programmes that the start-ups participate in are different, but share common elements. Chris assess how the business model of the start-ups changes over time and what the cause is for this change.