Perspectives on Boosting Sustainable Entrepreneurship Through Business Incubation

Purpose – The purpose of this thesis was to discover how sustainable entrepreneurship (SE) can be boosted in incubators by revealing with which means incubators facilitate SE today along the different stages of the incubation process. Design/methodology/approach – The authors conducted exploratory qualitative research based on a unique dataset from multiple-case studies of eleven incubators from major entrepreneurial ecosystems in Europe. In-depth interviews with incubator managers were conducted and secondary material was gathered to allow for triangulation. The data was coded with an iterative approach inspired by Gioia et al. (2013) and led to a comprehensive code structure that laid the groundwork for the authors to develop substantiated findings. Findings – The analysis revealed how existing frameworks for business incubation can be enhanced to facilitate SE along the incubation process. The authors identified activity fields for each stage of SE incubation: implementing an overarching incubation strategy for sustainability, attracting future sustainable talent, granting sustainability significance during the selection, anchoring sustainability while the businesses evolve, creating sustainable opportunities outside of the program, and finally, orchestrating the longevity in the incubation ecosystem. For each field, the authors pinpointed specific tools for incubators ranging from the early stages up to more advanced approaches to facilitate SE. Originality/value – The authors closed a research gap by opening the “black box” of business incubation for SE. For this, the authors extended Bergek & Norrman’s (2008) framework with three more stages that are essential for the facilitation of SE. On top, the authors derived six propositions to substantiate the main finding and to stress aspects that are crucial for future investigation. Keywords – sustainable entrepreneurship, facilitation, business incubation, tools, process, exploratory qualitative multiple-case stud