Title: Nourishment for the piggy bank: facilitation of external financing in incubators

Authors: Lise Aaboen, Hans Lofsten, Lars Bengtsson

Addresses: Division of Operations Management, Department of Technology Management and Economics, Chalmers University of Technology, SE 412 96 Goteborg, Sweden. ' Division of Operations Management, Department of Technology Management and Economics, Chalmers University of Technology, SE 412 96 Goteborg, Sweden. ' School of Management, Blekinge Institute of Technology, P.O. Box 520, 372 25 Ronneby, Sweden

Abstract: In this paper, we argue that incubators facilitate access to external financing for their incubatees. Incubators use a wide range of activities to facilitate the accessing of external financing from public and private sources. We have grouped these into two sets of activities. The general activities aim to develop the conditions for external financing through information, education of incubatees, network-building and lobbying activities. The specific activities aim to assist the individual incubatee in their pursuit of external finance through help in application procedures, establishing need for capital, making contacts with the best public or private investor, etc. Based on the survey data, we have also shown that it is more common for incubatees to attract external capital compared to non-incubator firms. The incubatees seem especially successful in attracting public capital. The incubatees also attract more private external capital, however, the observed frequency of private capital in the incubatees are low.

Keywords: business incubators; new technology-based firms; NTBFs; external financing; newness liabilities; facilitation; public capital; private capital.

DOI: 10.1504/IJTTC.2011.040895

International Journal of Technology Transfer and Commercialisation, 2011 Vol.10 No.3/4, pp.354 - 374

Published online: 31 Jan 2015 *

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