Firm performance after incubation: public incubators and knowledge-intensive entrepreneurial firms
Linus Brunnström, Mark J.O. Bagley, Guido Buenstorf, Maureen McKelveyPurpose
Drawing upon theories of knowledge-intensive entrepreneurial firms, we analyze how knowledge specialization within public incubators in terms of industries and founder backgrounds relates to firm performance after incubation. Special attention is given to the direct and indirect contributions of university researchers, who may be well-positioned to apply and recombine advanced knowledge.
Design/methodology/approach
We analyze a longitudinal sample of 852 start-up firms over a period of 15 years which have completed incubation period at one of 37 Swedish public incubators. We categorize knowledge specialization both in terms of founder backgrounds and in terms of the incubators' relative emphasis on an industry-technology. With 80% of firms in the dataset surviving for more than 10 years, our empirical focus is on factors associated with the growth of firms, during the post-incubation period.
Findings
We find that successful firms are founded by individuals from a variety of backgrounds and operate in diverse industries. Firms originating from incubators with more industry specialization have higher growth rates, but this advantage is time limited. Our findings highlight the importance of diverse knowledge specialization in entrepreneurial backgrounds and industries, suggesting that public policy should promote entrepreneurship across various settings and support diverse entrepreneurs.
Originality/value
By covering two dimensions of diversity, including founder backgrounds and integrating registration data from three sources we aim to enhance understanding of how these factors interact within the incubator and if and how these affect firms that have left incubation.