Incubation manager roles in the co-innovation context

The paper focuses on incubation managers' work in the context of collaborative innovation (co-innovation). While incubation managers are a key human resource in incubation processes, including co-innovation projects, there is a lack of research on their work roles. This paper contributed to this gap by drawing from the business and organisation development literatures and analysing the roles incubation managers' play in real-life practice. Our empirical study shows that while incubation managers' have many roles, their integration is a key issue. In our case study, incubation managers needed to work as business consultants and coaches simultaneously, seamlessly integrating key activities attached to both roles. Therefore, our study confirms the relevance of investigating how a multiplicity of roles are fused together rather than kept separated.