Incubator performance : An efficiency frontier analysis

• Assessments and evaluations of incubators has been a topic of discussion for as long as incubators have been in existence due to the fact that there has not been an agreement on how to determine good performance. This paper demonstrates the use of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) when studying performance of incubators. More specifically, it does so within the four dimensions of cooperation with universities, business networks, external funding and competence development on a sample of 16 Swedish incubators. We show that DEA enables us to measure non-numerical dimensions, and to simultaneously take into account the efforts made by both the incubator and the outcomes. Moreover, DEA provides benchmarks and, based on a model that divides the incubators into four different groups, illustrates the difference between the benchmark and the incubators' current situation.

Subject headings

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Ekonomi och näringsliv (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Economics and Business (hsv//eng)

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Ekonomi och näringsliv -- Företagsekonomi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Economics and Business -- Business Administration (hsv//eng)

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Maskinteknik -- Produktionsteknik, arbetsvetenskap och ergonomi (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Mechanical Engineering -- Production Engineering, Human Work Science and Ergonomics (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Företagsekonomi

Business administration

Business studies

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)