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A Question of Evaluation: NBIA's Impact Assessment of Business Incubators

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  • Peter Bearse

    (Development Strategies Corporation)

Abstract

The latest report on the impact of business incubators distributed by the National Business Incubation Association (NBIA) suffers from severe shortcomings that undermine claims being made for it. Claims of methodological improvements are spurious, as are those for "added value" of the study results over previous incubator impact studies. It is likely that these claims, however, will be used by NBIA and other promoters of business incubator projects to appeal to sources offending at all levels to support both capital and operating costs of such projects. Even though the latest study focused on a rather select subset of the incubator universe, 40 of the 50 incubators analyzed still have not been able to break even. NBIA still has a way to go before it can provide, or help others to produce, valid performance evaluations, performance benchmarking results, and management information that can help incubators attain financial self-sustainability as well as other performance benchmarks.

Suggested Citation

  • Peter Bearse, 1998. "A Question of Evaluation: NBIA's Impact Assessment of Business Incubators," Economic Development Quarterly, , vol. 12(4), pages 322-333, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:ecdequ:v:12:y:1998:i:4:p:322-333
    DOI: 10.1177/089124249801200404
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Bearse, Peter, 1994. "On ethics and values in the field of economic development," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 23(1-2), pages 169-195.
    2. Hugh Sherman & David S. Chappell, 1998. "Methodological Challenges in Evaluating Business Incubator Outcomes," Economic Development Quarterly, , vol. 12(4), pages 313-321, November.
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    Cited by:

    1. Junbo Yu & Peter Nijkamp, 2010. "Methodological Challenges and Institutional Barriers in the Use of Experimental Method for the Evaluation of Business Incubators: Lessons from the US, EU, and China," Working Papers Working Paper 2010-04, Regional Research Institute, West Virginia University.
    2. Haifeng Qian & Kingsley Haynes, 2010. "Incubation Push or Business Pull? Investigating the Geography of US Business Incubators," Working Papers Working Paper 2010-05, Regional Research Institute, West Virginia University.
    3. repec:rri:wpaper:201005 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Schwartz, Michael, 2010. "A Control Group Study of Incubators’ Impact to Promote Firm Survival," IWH Discussion Papers 11/2010, Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH).
    5. Schwartz, Michael & Göthner, Maximilian, 2009. "A Novel Approach to Incubator Evaluations: The PROMETHEE Outranking Procedures," IWH Discussion Papers 1/2009, Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH).
    6. Schwartz, Michael, 2008. "Incubator Age and Incubation Time: Determinants of Firm Survival after Graduation?," IWH Discussion Papers 14/2008, Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH).
    7. Michael Schwartz, 2013. "A control group study of incubators’ impact to promote firm survival," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 38(3), pages 302-331, June.
    8. repec:rri:wpaper:201004 is not listed on IDEAS

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