Incubators improve success of startups providing innovative sustainability solutions

PhD research

Start-ups have great potential for providing meaningful innovations such as solutions to climate change. But start-up success is tricky business - we’ve all heard of a promising new start-up that’s gone under. Incubators - organisations that help start-ups at a very early stage to grow - are being heralded as the solution. But do they actually improve start-up success?

Entrepreneurs launching start-ups are often faced with complex strategic choices and have little experience and legitimacy. Incubators are collaborative programmes that aim to help solve these problems associated with launching a start-up.

If and why incubation contributes to improved performance of start-ups has been a topic of debate among both academics and practitioners. Chris Eveleens, a sustainable entrepreneurship PhD candidate at the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, Utrecht University, investigated these questions during his PhD research.

I’m intrigued by all the new business ideas popping up, often targeting important societal challenges. Only a few will flourish and many will fail. But why is this? And can incubation help?

Chris Eveleens

Incubation improves start-up performance

An initial review of the network-based incubation literature showed that incubation can provide a range of intermediary benefits including valuable business knowledge and a sense of belonging. Eveleens then analysed 269 start-ups and found that incubation does indeed increases the performance of start-ups.

 

Image: Gordon Johnson

Incubation improves start-up experimentation process

But how exactly do start-ups do this? Eveleens sought to explain this effect by following ten start-ups for ten months, some of which did, and some of which did not experience incubation. He found that incubation helps start-ups succeed in several ways. For one they improve the start-up experimentation process, which has a positive effect on overall performance. They also provide important networks, which help start-ups to prosper.

Research in the media

Eveleens has also been sharing his insights with the media, including a column with Dutch newspaper the Financieele Dagblad. “I think it's important that research not only ends up in academic journals or curricula,” he explains.

    Further reading

    Eveleens, C.P., van Rijnsoever, F.J. & Niesten, E.M.M.I. 2017. How network-based incubation helps start-up performance: a systematic review against the background of management theories. The Journal of Technology Transfer, 42(3) 676-713. doi.org/10.1007/s10961-016-9510-7

    Eveleens, C.P., van Rijnsoever, F.J. & Hekkert, M. We can work it out: the dual impact of proximities in the network of early-stage start-ups. DRUID 2018. Conference paper link.

    Van Rijnsoever, F. J., van Weele, M. A. & Eveleens, C.P. 2017. Network brokers or hit makers? Analyzing the influence of incubation on start-up investments. International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal,13(2) 605-629. doi.org/10.1007/s11365-016-0416-5