Initial results in measuring the effectiveness of the activities of business incubators

Abstract

Business incubation is as growing area attracting substantial interest both from governments and the private sector. Unfortunately, the large variety in nomenclature, programmes, services offered, underpinning business models, the frequent lack of availability of performance data, or a common set of metrics that could be used to compute and provide widely acceptable KPI useful to facilitate the choice, makes it difficult for “would - be - entrepreneurs” to operate an informed choice. Additionally, the role of the Information Management System has been under investigated. The present paper presents the research being conducted for the design and implementation of a modular information management system expressly designed to adapt to the needs of business incubators irrespective of the business model and approach adopted. The design in informed of the different business models presently adopted, the set of services and programmes offered, and the guidelines proposed by the European Union and the Russian federation. Best practices adopted in the UK and Europe have also been considered along with Cabral and Dahab principles. Finally, we propose a set of metrics that can be easily collected and used to generate valuable KPI able to support both the business incubation management as well as the applicants