Exploring business incubation practices and relationships to drivers of start-up success in Turkey

This article presents a qualitative study of business incubators in Turkey and their contribution to the success of technology start-ups. Through in-depth interviews, we define the concept of start-up success and identify the factors associated with effective incubation from the perspectives of incubator tenants and incubator managers. Our longitudinal field study involving 17 technology start-ups and six business incubators was conducted in order to gain an in-depth understanding of the incubation experience and tenants progress after graduation. Propositions were derived regarding start-up success and the value-added contribution of business incubators. We observed that when defining success, human capital development and employee motivation are a central focus for Turkish start-ups. We find that the timing of graduation from the incubator and the level of maturity of the start-up at the time of graduation are crucial determinants of whether the firm will be successful after it leaves the safety net of the incubator.