The Support Mechanisms for Innovative Entrepreneurship: Start-up Accelerators and Incubators

Among the main components that make up start-up ecosystems, we certainly find accelerators and incubators of start-up companies. Around the world, business incubators and accelerators play a pivotal role in the development of innovative solutions to the technological, economic, and social challenges of the twenty-first century. The chapter is introduced by describing the origins of support programs for new businesses. Subsequently, a systematization of the literature review on business incubators and accelerators is performed. Then, the operation and the logic behind the business incubators and accelerators are described. A focus also on the difference between incubators and accelerators and on the different types of the latter is proposed. Finally, the fundraising process and phases passed through the start-ups and often supported by the intervention of business accelerators are analyzed. This phenomenon certainly has an impact on the economy, on the politics of courtiers and therefore also on the academic world. Only recently have scientific studies focused on this issue. The literature on business incubators places much emphasis on technology transfer and the likelihood that start-ups may need to employ accelerators to access resources of various types. There is little research on how to fully understand the phenomenon of business incubators and accelerators.