Title: Incubation performance and incubator profiles: a study on benchmarking Indian incubation units

Authors: M.S. Karthicanand; Prakash Sai Lokachari

Addresses: Department of Management Studies, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, India ' Department of Management Studies, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, India

Abstract: Technology business incubators are support ecosystems that enable technopreneurs to launch start-ups based on deep technologies and new business models. In developing countries like India, governments progressively establish and support incubation units to propel entrepreneurship and innovation. The proliferation of business incubators makes it imperative to evaluate their performance and examine the factors that have a bearing on their performance. Using data envelopment analysis (DEA), 53 major business incubation units in India were analysed, revealing avenues for improvement that can enable developing incubation units move closer to the frontier incubation units. Subsequent decision tree analysis revealed incubator profiles that are more likely to influence the classification as a frontier incubation unit, highlighting differences between university incubators and other incubators in terms of the thrust areas they support, and the nature of services offered. The attributes that emerge as key differentiators are discussed in the context of supporting Deep-Tech start-ups.

Keywords: business incubation; Deep-Tech; incubation performance; data envelopment analysis; DEA; decision tree.

DOI: 10.1504/IJENM.2025.149557

International Journal of Enterprise Network Management, 2025 Vol.16 No.3, pp.197 - 221

Received: 13 May 2024
Accepted: 22 Aug 2024
Published online: 07 Nov 2025 *

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