Incubators

The term incubator (or business incubator) is defined as a suite of resources that support and encourage the development of new businesses. Today, incubators have emerged as an economic development tool for nurturing new and small companies. Incubators can be seen as intermediate firms that perform a bridging function between promising start-ups and resources required in their developmental stages, while protecting them from potential failure. Incubators may also act as links between start-ups and other stakeholders that provide resources, such as governments, financial institutions, and business networks. In many ways, incubators function as mechanisms for technology transfer while encouraging the development of small businesses.

The term incubator is adopted from other fields, such as medicine and the health sciences, and relates [Page 251]to the notions of ...