Business Incubators, Tenant Firms and New Companies: Evidence from Portugal

Business incubators (BIs) are important entities in the entrepreneurial ecosystem and, as such, can make a significant contribution to regional development. The aim of this exploratory work is to describe the business incubation activity in Portugal and thus fill the current gap in the literature. Due to the limited data and few institutional sources, we adopt a methodology driven by the challenge of identifying the situation of BIs and new firms within the entrepreneurial setting in Portugal. The study, using data gathered in 2015, reveals the asymmetrical distribution of BIs across Portuguese districts and the mismatch between the number of BIs and the number of new firms. Policy makers can use the district patterns of business incubation activity identified in this research to develop an integrated BI network that addresses the business particularities of Portuguese districts. This framework can lead to new lines of research. These include the study of the wide range of services provided by BIs to tenant firms in Portugal, the analysis of factors influencing the spatial distribution of Portuguese BIs, and the comparative analysis of the performance of specialized and non-specialized BIs in the Portuguese territory.