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Geography of Business Incubator Formation in the United States

Author

Listed:
  • Junbo Yu

    (Regional Research Institute, West Virginia University)

  • Mark Middleton

    (Regional Research Institute, West Virginia University)

  • Randall Jackson

    (Regional Research Institute, West Virginia University)

Abstract

The geography of business incubators has seldom been examined against the public aspirations and beliefs that incubators should either inhabit economically distressed areas to alleviate unemployment and poverty (in the case of empowerment business incubators) or proliferate in technologically capable regions to adequately unleash and exploit local high-technology potentials (in the case of technology business incubators). In this paper, the geographic distribution of 719 U.S. business incubators, which are located in 465 out of the 3,141 counties, is examined drawing upon a newly built incubator population database. In addition, the location factors underlying the formation of business incubators are also identified and analyzed, which leads to the discovery of a dichotomy between rural and urban incubators in their locational determinants.

Suggested Citation

  • Junbo Yu & Mark Middleton & Randall Jackson, 2010. "Geography of Business Incubator Formation in the United States," Working Papers Working Paper 2010-10, Regional Research Institute, West Virginia University.
    • Handle: RePEc:rri:wpaper:2010wp10
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    File URL: https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/rri_pubs/46/
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Sungur, Onur & Dulupçu, Murat Ali, 2012. "Türkiye’de İş Geliştirme Merkezlerinde (İŞGEM) Yer Alan Kiracı Firmaların Hayatta Kalma Performansı [Survival Performance of Tenant Firms in Business Incubators (ISGEMs) in Turkey]," MPRA Paper 51853, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised May 2013.
    2. Gonçalo Rodrigues Brás & Miguel Torres Preto, 2019. "The geographical distribution of Portuguese business incubators: an empirical approach," Economics and Business Letters, Oviedo University Press, vol. 8(3), pages 147-155.
    3. Sungur, Onur & Dulupçu, Murat Ali, 2013. "İşletme Kuluçkaları ve Bölgesel Kalkınma: Kavramsal Çerçeve ve Literatür Bulguları [Business Incubators and Regional Development: Conceptual Framework and Findings from the Literature]," MPRA Paper 51833, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Randall Jackson & Peter Schaeffer & Mark Middleton, 2012. "Metro and Non-Metro Business Icubators: Similarities and Critical Differences," Working Papers Working Paper 2012-03, Regional Research Institute, West Virginia University.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    geography; business incubator; entrepreneurship; growth machine; decision-making;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Q56 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environment and Development; Environment and Trade; Sustainability; Environmental Accounts and Accounting; Environmental Equity; Population Growth
    • R11 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Regional Economic Activity: Growth, Development, Environmental Issues, and Changes

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