Exploring the interplay of the entrepreneurial process and the incubation process

Entrepreneurship and start-ups are important factors for economic growth and development. As the surrounding innovation ecosystem is becoming increasingly complex, it gets more difficult for entrepreneurs to find the right path. Incubators are important when it comes to facilitating and supporting new ventures. In this research, we conducted 19 semi-structured interviews of which five were held with public incubators, four with private incubators, nine with incubatees and one with Vinnova (a government authority that plays a huge part within the existence of public incubators) in order to gain an understanding of the interplay of the incubation process and the entrepreneurial process. As for analyzing the collected data we used a thematic analysis with an inductive approach. Throughout the coding process, we extracted the following three main topics: role of an incubator, incubation process and interplay. However, a distinction between public and private incubators was approved as applicable that determines the incubators’ purpose, objectives and operations. Our findings suggest that incubators play an important role in supporting and guiding the start-ups by transferring knowledge and asking the right questions as a fundament for the further entrepreneurial process. Continuous communication and expectation management are shown as crucial throughout the interplay of the two processes. Lastly, the disconnection from the incubatees should be done carefully, e.g. through a non-proactive aftercare