Technology Transfer, Internationalization and Firm Reputation throughout Business Incubation lifecycle

This paper analyses the role played by business incubators (BIs) in developing and facilitating technology transfer, internationalization and reputation among tenant firms. We focus on the founders’ perception, through the analysis of ten in-depth case studies of incubatees and graduated firms from IPN – a tech-based BI in Portugal.
A two-step research design was adopted. First, primary data was collected through documentary analysis, participant observation and focus group involving the incubator’s CEO and staff members. Semi-structured face-to-face interviews were also carried out among the founders, considering their companies’ specific stage of development: incubatees, under acceleration, and graduates. Second, a survey was sent to founders or CEOs of the sampled companies.
Results show how incubators facilitate university-industry linkages, providing: (i) an assessment of key technology transfer practices, internationalization and reputation gained at incubators across firms’ life-cycle and, (ii) insight on how founders of incubated and graduated firms perceive the value of incubation.
Although results suggest a positive impact of incubation on internationalization and reputation for incubatees and firms under acceleration, there is no evidence of benefits from the technology transfer processes. The empirical analysis also stressed the need for new post-incubation follow-up mechanisms and promotion of narrow relationships among graduated companies – which has been a widely neglected topic by both academics and practitioners.