How university business incubation supports entrepreneurs in technology-based and creative industries: A comparative study

Business incubators (BIs) provide entrepreneurs with access to critical resources (for example, physical, financial, knowledge, social, legitimacy, and so on) that support venture development. Little is known about how support needs differ between entrepreneurs pursuing technology-based (TB) and creative-industry (CI) opportunities. Yet these differences may affect their ability to benefit from incubation. This is the first comparative study addressing this gap. Focusing on university BIs, our qualitative analysis reveals that TB entrepreneurs benefit from physical capital supporting proof of concept, financial grants, and technical and industry-specific knowledge capital. In contrast, CI entrepreneurs benefit from physical capital supporting product development, financing of smaller-scale projects, and knowledge capital focused on business basics. External legitimacy was more important to TB entrepreneurs, while internal social capital mattered more to CI entrepreneurs. We draw on value creation and capture to explain these differences. The findings have implications for research and practice concerned with incubation and university-based entrepreneurial support.