Title: Technological innovation capability of business incubators and digital entrepreneurship performance in an innovation ecosystem

Authors: Selma Regina Martins Oliveira; Sandro Trento

Addresses: Department of Accounting, Fluminense Federal University, R. Des. Ellis Hermydio Figueira, 783 – Bloco A – Aterrado, Volta Redonda – RJ, 27213-145, Brazil ' Department of Economics and Management, University of Trento, Via Inama 5 – 38122 Trento, Italy

Abstract: While the potential benefits of technological innovation capabilities have been widely reported, there is a lack of proposals to examine how the capabilities of technological innovation support the performance of digital enterprises in innovation ecosystems. The authors conducted a survey with a sample of 135 incubator managers in Italy. Spearman's correlation was used to examine the relationship between technological innovation capabilities and the performance of digital entrepreneurship. The main finding of the results is that most technological innovation capabilities have a positive effect on the creation and capture of value, but are of little significance for proposition. The findings of this research suggest that incubator managers should focus their efforts mainly on the capabilities that most increase the proposal, the creation and the capture of value. Finally, we offer implications for management theory and practice.

Keywords: digital entrepreneurship performance; technological innovation capabilities; innovation ecosystem; business incubators; innovation intermediaries; value proposition; value creation; value capture; innovative business models; startups.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEIM.2023.133379

International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management, 2023 Vol.27 No.3/4, pp.173 - 207

Received: 22 Nov 2021
Received in revised form: 07 Dec 2022
Accepted: 13 Jan 2023
Published online: 14 Sep 2023 *

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