Title: Incubator performance: an efficiency frontier analysis

Authors: Lise Aaboen, Peter Lindelof, Hans Lofsten

Addresses: Division of Operations Management, Department of Technology Management and Economics, Chalmers University of Technology, SE 412 96 Goteborg, Sweden. ' Baltic Business School, University of Kalmar, SE 391 82 Kalmar, Sweden. ' Division of Operations Management, Department of Technology Management and Economics, Chalmers University of Technology, SE 412 96 Goteborg, Sweden

Abstract: Assessments and evaluations of incubators has been a topic of discussion for as long as incubators have been in existence due to the fact that there has not been an agreement on how to determine good performance. This paper demonstrates the use of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) when studying performance of incubators. More specifically, it does so within the four dimensions of cooperation with universities, business networks, external funding and competence development on a sample of 16 Swedish incubators. We show that DEA enables us to measure non-numerical dimensions, and to simultaneously take into account the efforts made by both the incubator and the outcomes. Moreover, DEA provides benchmarks and, based on a model that divides the incubators into four different groups, illustrates the difference between the benchmark and the incubators| current situation.

Keywords: incubators; incubator performance; data envelopment analysis; DEA; utility; capabilities; universities; business networks; external funding; competence development; Sweden; benchmarks.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBIR.2008.018585

International Journal of Business Innovation and Research, 2008 Vol.2 No.4, pp.354 - 380

Published online: 01 Jun 2008 *

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