The Smart Guide to Innovation- Based Incubators (IBI) · 2018-10-04 · • new products, • new...
Transcript of The Smart Guide to Innovation- Based Incubators (IBI) · 2018-10-04 · • new products, • new...
The Smart Guide to Innovation-Based Incubators (IBI)
EN
February 2010
The EU’s Cohesion Policy has been supporting authorities and stakeholders to deliver innovation in their regions for many years.
Promoting incubation and growth of small innovative firms is singled out in the EU2020 strategy, proposed by President Barroso, as one of the ways of creating value by basing growth on knowledge.
Given the huge diversity of regions across the EU27, and the great complexity of innovation processes, we need to gather forces for this task. This guide shows that Commission departments working together can make it happen and reach a larger number of Managing Authorities and stakeholders.
It is an easy-to-read guide for those directly involved with delivering innovation in the regions - those who create and design the projects that make innovative businesses strive, that bring new entrepreneurs to the market place, and that help to transform ideas into action.
We are proud that the European BIC Network, launched in the mid 80s under Cohesion Policy, is now an independent organisation globally recognised for its expertise in incubation processes and the provision of high quality services to businesses and innovation. This guide owes much to their existence.
We hope that you will find it a valuable tool for action.
New knowledge and new ideas are created every day across Europe. Transferring them into real innovation - a new economic activity that creates jobs and wealth - is facilitated by supporting those that have been inspired by new ideas and knowledge.
Business incubators have a long history in supporting research
and development based start-ups from academic and research institutes. But with the changing nature of innovation, the incubators and the support services they provide must also be open to change.
Business incubation for knowledge intensive services or in the creative industries has to respond to needs which are different from those for biotech companies. The case studies included in the guide show this immense diversity of creativity as source for innovation.
Good incubation services have to cover a broad range of innovation support services in the region and in Europe. Ever more start-up companies are ‘born-globals’, based on a business idea that immediately addresses an international market.
The guide provides several examples of how incubators acting as networks successfully support young companies to make the most of the opportunities offered by the EU.
Katarína MathernováDeputy Director GeneralDG Regional Policy
Foreword
Françoise Le BailDeputy Director GeneralDG Enterprise and Industry
The Smart Guide to Innovation-Based Incubators (IBI)
The guide was prepared by the EBN team, Mr. Giordano Dichter (Quality &
Technical Assistant Manager), assisted by Mr. Gonçalo Reis (Quality Officer)
and by Mrs. Nathalie Marchand (Communication Manager). It was supervised
by Mr. Philippe Vanrie (CEO).
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Contents 1. To start with, a few questions… and their answers. ....................................................................... 4
1.1 Why a Smart Guide on Innovation‐Based Incubators? ........................................................... 4
1.2 What is innovation? ................................................................................................................. 4
1.3 What is incubation? ................................................................................................................. 5
1.4 What is an incubator? ............................................................................................................. 6
1.5 What is an innovation‐based incubator (IBI)? ......................................................................... 8
2. Setting up an Innovation‐based incubator .................................................................................... 11
2.1 The Mission statement and the strategic goals. ................................................................... 11
2.2 The preconditions .................................................................................................................. 12
2.3 Positioning an IBI ................................................................................................................... 13
2.4 Engineering the IBI ................................................................................................................ 16
2.5 A focus on the services of an IBI ............................................................................................ 19
2.5.1 Services in the pre‐incubation stage ............................................................................. 19
2.5.2 Services in the incubation stage .................................................................................... 20
2.5.3 Services for existing SMEs ............................................................................................. 23
2.6 Organization of an Innovation‐based incubator ................................................................... 24
2.7 Cost and income Model ......................................................................................................... 27
3. Networking of an IBI – for the benefit of an entrepreneur ........................................................... 29
4. The impact assessment of an IBI ................................................................................................... 33
4.1 First some questions… and their answers… .......................................................................... 33
4.1.1 What is “monitoring”? ................................................................................................... 33
4.1.2 What is “Benchmarking”? ............................................................................................. 33
4.1.3 Why monitor and benchmark? ..................................................................................... 33
4.2 Indicators ............................................................................................................................... 34
4.3 Applying indicators to the incubation process ...................................................................... 35
5. To summarize… 12 tips if you are planning to set‐up an IBI ......................................................... 37
6. Bibliographic references ................................................................................................................ 38
6.1 Publications ........................................................................................................................... 38
6.2 Websites ................................................................................................................................ 38
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Table of Figures Figure 1: the incubation process ............................................................................................................. 6 Figure 2: IBIs, where entrepreneurship meets innovation ..................................................................... 8 Figure 3: breakdown of project typology within the Business Innovation Centres (source EBN quality system) .................................................................................................................................................... 9 Figure 4: Vision, Mission, Goals of an IBI .............................................................................................. 11 Figure 5: the pre‐conditions for setting up an IBI ................................................................................. 13 Figure 6: factors influencing the positioning of an IBI .......................................................................... 14 Figure 7: Incubators within Science and Technology Parks (Source: IASP) ........................................... 15 Figure 8: public support to the regional systems for innovation .......................................................... 15 Figure 9: main issues concerning the set‐up of an IBI ........................................................................... 16 Figure 10: the legal status within the EBN network (source: EBN quality system) ............................... 17 Figure 11: target beneficiaries and end‐users of an IBI ........................................................................ 18 Figure 12: key qualifications within the EBN network (Source: EBN Quality system) .......................... 19 Figure 13: the pre‐incubation stage ...................................................................................................... 19 Figure 14: the incubation stage ............................................................................................................. 20 Figure 15: some numbers on physical incubation in Europe (source: EBN Quality system) ................. 21 Figure 16: breakdown of access to finance services offered in Europe by the BICs (Source: EBN Quality system) .................................................................................................................................................. 22 Figure 17: main services for SMEs offered by an IBI ............................................................................. 23 Figure 18: tools to ease the incubation process ................................................................................... 23 Figure 19: services most often provided in the UK IBIs (Source: UKBI) ................................................ 24 Figure 20: issues to consider when planning the internal organization of an IBI ................................. 24 Figure 21: the needed infrastructure .................................................................................................... 25 Figure 22: the human resources ........................................................................................................... 26 Figure 23: the size of the BICs networked by EBN (Source: EBN Quality system) ................................ 27 Figure 24: main sources of income of an IBI ......................................................................................... 27 Figure 25: main categories of expenses of an IBI .................................................................................. 28 Figure 26: examples of national networks of IBIs ................................................................................. 31 Figure 27: example of special‐purpose networks for IBIs ..................................................................... 32 Figure 28: SMART Indicators ................................................................................................................. 35 Figure 29: some indicators associated to the incubation process ........................................................ 36
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1. To start with, a few questions… and their answers.
1.1 Why a Smart Guide on Innovation-Based Incubators?
Innovation‐based incubation is not the most recent subject in Europe per‐se. it is over a quarter of a century that the European Commission has triggered the phenomena through the establishment of policies and actions aimed at boosting innovation within Europe as a method to support regional development practices and SME competitiveness. Indeed it was over 25 year ago that DG‐Regio launched the concept of the “European Commission Business and Innovation Centres” (EC‐BIC). This was later on taken on board by DG Enterprise and Industry which developed a quality system to manage the EC‐BIC Label. Over 150 fully certified BICs are now working in EU27 on more than 200 sites, networked and supported by EBN (the European BIC Network), an NGO based in Brussels, created 25 years go at the initiative of the EC, as well! Many other non‐EC‐led experiences have sprung around Europe, and innovation‐based incubators are now a reality all over the world. After over 25 years of practices and policies lessons have been learned on the concept of innovation‐based incubation and more specifically on the concept of innovation‐based incubators (IBI). It is nowadays possible to understand what are the key elements of their success, what to take into consideration when a region, or a local territory, is thinking to resort to this tool to strengthen and carry out policies for innovation and SME support, and, mostly, what to do and what not to do when positioning, engineering and organizing an IBI. Hence, the aim of the Smart Guide is to provide the local stakeholders of a region including the Managing Authorities of Cohesion Policy Funds an insight on the scopes of IBIs and on the paths and steps needed to set up successful ones. This Smart Guide is addressed to them. It is composed of two parts, the first one highlighting the conditions to meet, the actors to gather, the services to develop, the costs to face and the targets to measure, ²to create successful IBIs, the second one describing study cases which have been analyzed in Europe and beyond1.
1.2 What is innovation?
Probably there are as many definitions of innovation as the number of innovation‐practitioners on the field, so when assessing what innovation is, it is advisable to use the widest definition possible. Whereas it can be stated that “To innovate is the application of something new for a specific use”. Whoever will use the innovation will therefore perceive an added value in its introduction, added value which may be measured in many ways, not only in financial terms. This leads to the following definition of innovation:
“Innovation is a change that creates and/or adds value, and provides a competitive advantage HERE and NOW”
1 To view the study cases please refer to the following URL: http://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/sources/docoffic/working/sf2000_en.htm
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To innovate implies a very sharp understanding of the reality, and a high degree of creativity. Understanding how things work, how they can be improved and what is actually missing (yet non‐existing). Applying creativity and imagination to create, scout and find novelties which users would perceive as having an added value, therefore providing a wider, if not completely new, market for them, and therefore highlighting the existing links among innovation and entrepreneurs.
Already in 1934 the Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter, the first economist to address the importance of innovation within the economic cycles, considered entrepreneurship with a specific emphasis on innovation. In his view, still valid today, innovation deals with:
• new products,
• new production methods,
• new markets,
• new forms of organization
Moreover innovation and entrepreneurship are profoundly embedded in their territorial realities, which in the EU27, differ enormously not only in terms of economic sectors, but also in terms of their history, their cultures, their traditions and their political background. Therefore, while the basic concepts of entrepreneurship, innovation and incubation and the associated terminology must be commonly accepted and shared, when putting into practice actions towards the creation of new IBIs, the different realities and situations must be taken into account since different worlds will have different needs and therefore different answers to satisfy them.
1.3 What is incubation?
Incubation is a process which tends to be activated whenever there is a need to support entrepreneurs in developing their own business. The concept of innovation is not yet being considered as innovation and entrepreneurship are two separate phenomena, albeit intertwined to a great extent. The same definitions of entrepreneur vary within a range where at one extreme an entrepreneur is “anyone who is self‐employed or in business”, and at the other an entrepreneur is “a person who pioneers change”.
The process, or parts of it, is put in place whenever there is a need of nurturing would‐be entrepreneurs to think over and further develop the business idea and transforming it into a viable and sustainable activity.
There are three stages of incubation:
Pre‐incubation relates to the overall activities needed to support the potential entrepreneur in developing his business idea, business model and business plan, to boost the chances to arrive to an effective start‐up creation. It usually implies a first assessment of the idea, training, and direct one‐to‐one assistance necessary to put the client in the conditions to write a fully complete business plan. University‐affiliated incubators are usually pre‐incubators.
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Incubation concerns the support given to the entrepreneur from the start‐up to the expansion phase. Typically this is a mid‐term process, lasting usually for the first three years of activity of the newly established company, which are the years in which it is safe to say whether the new venture is successful and has a good chance to develop into a fully mature company. The actions activated generally are access to finance, direct coaching and mentoring services, as well as hosting services and specific training. Therefore physical incubation, although a very important service, is a subset of the overall incubation process.
Post‐incubation, relates to the activities to be carried out when the company has reached the maturity phase, and therefore is ready to walk on its own feet. It is the time when, If it has been physically incubated, the company will leave the incubator. Various services might still be needed by the SME for example to increment its sales or improve its productive processes, such as internationalization services or innovation introduction through scouting and detection activities. Incubators positioned as “post incubators” sometime rename themselves as “accelerators”.
1.4 What is an incubator?
An incubator is a place where the incubation activities are carried out, and where the would‐be entrepreneurs and the existing SMEs find a suitable place, in terms of facilities and expertise, to address their needs and develop their business ideas, and transform them into sustainable realities.
An incubator may still be an incubator even if it doesn’t provide physical incubation services, and concentrates on virtual incubation2.
2 Virtual incubation: this terminology applies to “incubators without walls” and to e‐platforms of online services deployed by incubators with physical premises.
Figure 1: the incubation process
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Typologies of incubators:
Pre‐incubators typically offer the services related to the pre‐incubation phase of incubation. They offer the expertise (coaching and direct advice) and the facilities (minimum a workstation) to support potential entrepreneurs in the development of their business ideas and in the elaboration of the business plan.
Academic incubators are based in universities and research centres and provide support to those business ideas which either are elaborated by students or are spin‐offs of R&D activities.
General purpose incubators provide all the set of services from the pre to the post incubation phase and provide the support to all those who have a feasible idea notwithstanding the provenance and the economic sector involved.
Sector‐specific incubators provide all the set of services from the pre to the post incubation phase and provide the support to all those who have a feasible idea within a specific economic sector (e.g. environment, agro‐food, chemicals, etc.), which is the expression of the real endogenous potential of the territory where the incubator is located. According to the specificities of the sector, these may require specific infrastructure to meet the needs of the client companies.
Enterprise hotels, while providing business services to the supported entrepreneurs, concentrate their effort mainly in physical incubation activities and are a common reality in large metropolitan areas, where production and office space represent an impeding factor.
The Esinet Network, bringing together IBIs active in Space & Sat technologies
ESINET was launched in 2002 with the main objective to create an interactive community of start-ups, spin-off, entrepreneurs and early stage ventures sharing common interest for innovative Space & Sat technologies, systems and applications.
ESINET has become the platform of successful space and satellite tech transfer applications that leads to company creation and acceleration, anchored on a limited number of flagship Innovation and Incubation Centres: the ESA-BICs, which are located in ESA sites (Noordwijk, Frascati-Rome, Darmstadt, Redu-Wallonia, Vila Franca-Madrid) or ESA associated sites (Oberpfaffenhofen, Toulouse, Harwell, etc), and EBN Incubation Centres (Bordeaux, Barcelona, Liège, Stevenage, Nottingham, Burgos, Trieste, Sofia, Luxembourg, Caen, and others).
Moreover, ESINET brings together a community of SMEs and large corporate from both the space sector and non-space sectors, major regional stakeholders and established entrepreneurs, all supported by ESA and EBN on their road to success.
http://www.esinet.eu/
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1.5 What is an innovation-based incubator (IBI)?
An IBI is a business development center for new entrepreneurs and SMEs that intend to develop innovative ideas
There is a subset where the domains of entrepreneurship and of innovation find a common ground, where ideas are both innovative and profitable, which can be translated in sound businesses addressing specific markets. If entrepreneurship can exist without innovation, the inverse cannot be stated. An innovation requires entrepreneurship to finally exploit the added value the innovation generates.
In this case the entrepreneur can be seen as the “agent” of change… the person who can create value from an innovative idea in a context of change and uncertainty and the market is the trigger for it to happen.
Figure 2: IBIs, where entrepreneurship meets innovation
Innovation‐based incubators work in the intersection between the sets of innovation and entrepreneurship supporting entrepreneurs to profit from the added value of innovative ideas.
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Innovation‐based incubators support innovative business projects which could be either
technologically‐oriented or non‐technologically oriented. Technology therefore is not the only unit
on which to measure the degree of innovation of a business idea.
Innovation can be found indeed in technology, but also in downstream applications (of a generic
technology), in advanced and in knowledge‐intensive services, in business models, in marketing and
customer‐led processes, in design, in standards, in organization and management,…
• originates from the intention to satisfy the needs expressed by the market
• generates incremental innovation
• usually fits into already existing markets and their evolvements
Demand‐pull innovation
• originates for R&D activities and from competitive advantages provided by new technologies
• generates more radical innovations
• generates new markets
Technology‐push innovation
Other
Non‐technological innovation ‐oriented
Technological innovation ‐oriented
2006
2007
2008
Figure 3: breakdown of project typology within the Business Innovation Centres (source EBN quality system)
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The EC-Business and Innovation Centres (EC-BICs)
BICs are support organizations for innovative small and medium sized businesses (SMEs) and entrepreneurs.
They are recognized through a quality certification scheme, which enables them to obtain the EC-BIC Label (the only EC label qualifying IBIs at European level and beyond).
The BICs are an instrument for regional development developed initially by the European Commission DG-Regio in the mid 80s and has subsequently been adopted in all Europe and beyond.
Their mission is to contribute to the overall economic and social development of the regions through the implementation of support services to entrepreneurs, helping them to transform into reality their innovative business ideas, and the delivery of tailored services to existing SMEs, aimed at modernizing and innovating them.
To this end Business and Innovation Centres offer a tailor-made, integrated system of services, making sure that the overall incubation process is being delivered, networking its services and activities with those of the other key actors of the regional system for innovation.
BICs can assume many forms and can organize themselves in different ways, as long as they respect the EC-BIC Quality Mark Criteria, which rule the granting of the EC-BIC Label.
Today there are more than 150 BICs networked by the European BIC Network, the major network in Europe dedicated to innovation-based incubators, covering more than 200 operational sites.
For more information http://www.ebn.eu
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After this general overview, the IBI needs to go a step ahead, and take into account the specificities of the region, in particular:
• identifying those economic sectors which hold a strategic position as being those with sound innovation potential;
• identifying the network with which it will work to accomplish its mission, especially if the region is active in R&D.
An IBI will hardly accomplish its mission if it doesn’t cooperate with the other actors in the region involved in local development actions.
Strategic goals are even more closely related to the specificities of the regions in which an IBI operates because they will be directly linked to the definition of the services and actions it will undertake in the area it serves. They define clearly the direction that the actions of the IBI will follow, as well as the quali‐quantitative objectives they should reach in the mid‐term
Given the mission statement, which should have already identified the areas of competitive advantage, setting up strategic goals means mainly to have a vision of the future of the region in the mid‐term and to quantify realistic and feasible quali‐quantitative objectives, and therefore being able to identify the relevant actions and services that an IBI should put in place.
2.2 The preconditions
Before setting up an innovation‐based Incubator it is necessary to analyze the region and verify the existence of some preconditions which, if absent, would impede its success.
• The potential for endogenous regional development – an innovation‐based incubator will work supporting local entrepreneurs to develop sustainable businesses in those sectors where there is a competitive advantage and where innovation is an essential ingredient.
• The existence of a specific local and global market demand – an innovation‐based incubator should be set up where there is a request, although maybe not yet expressed, of incubation services. It might be necessary to make the demand emerge through proper communication and networking activities before the actual start‐up of the incubator, but a proper market research must be undertaken in order to understand whether there is a need for such a specific instrument or if it is better to start with other forms of business support organizations.
• A real need to cover gap(s) in the service supply chain – an innovation‐based incubator, as any “public‐interest” service provider should be set up when real added value will be delivered in the region. This means that among all the other business service providers there is none which is tackling innovation, or that, if there is, the services delivered are different, or are directed to entrepreneurs in different sectors, hence the new incubator will not be duplicating already existing efforts.
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Page | 16
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Page | 17
Legal status – an IBI could take the form of a private body, a public body, a public‐equivalent body, or a mix public‐private organization. It could be incorporated as an equity‐based company or not, but is generally operating on a not‐for‐profit mode. The main factors influencing the decision are the activated partnership and the concrete involvement of the private and the public sectors. Another concern is whether the innovation‐based incubator should be placed within an existing organization (in this case it becomes a new department or unit of a bigger hosting body), or if a new organization must be created.
Figure 10: the legal status within the EBN network (source: EBN quality system)
Physical location – the main question to respond to is where is it most convenient to install the innovative enterprise development unit, which will activate the incubation process. The main factors influencing the decision should be:
• The regional economic context – if regional economic sectors with competitive advantages are also physically located in a specific area, the incubation services should be placed near the area (e.g. an industrial district or a specific cluster). On the other extreme there might be the need to establish more than one center in the territory to ensure the appropriate proximity to the entrepreneurial community.
• The needs of the entrepreneurs – specific needs may call for specific organization within the local environment.
• The pre‐existing system for innovation and the local partnership – these factors should be considered since there is the need to not duplicate already existing services and to use the resources that the partnership can activate in favor of the IBI.
Partnership agreements ‐ these should be prepared and signed with all the local actors with which the IBI will interact in the delivery of the incubation process, making sure that it is clear who is doing what, and how this is undertaken. This will vary according to the activated partnership for innovation. It may be the case that specific partners can act as decentralized front offices of the IBI, or that they can specialize on specific high quality services (e.g. internationalization services can be offered by the chambers of commerce to the entrepreneurs and the client companies of an IBI through the formal acceptance of a special agreement).
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Page | 18
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Page | 19
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Page | 20
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Page | 21
incubator, as well as any business support organization, could propose the public authorities to intervene in the governance sphere, simplifying the processes which in some locations could be quite cumbersome.
Physical incubation – physically hosting the new companies is usually regarded as one of the most important service an IBI can provide, although it must be stressed how this is not coinciding with the overall incubation process, but it is rather associated to the level of a service, albeit usually perceived as having a high added‐value. Physical incubation is the provision of fully equipped office spaces and production spaces with the provision of other services, facilities and utilities, which are provided to the hosted companies who share them, thereby cutting the associated costs (i.e. secretarial costs, meeting rooms, printing devices, etc.).
Physical incubation activities
Percentage of BICs offering physical incubation services 82%
Average square meters available for incubation activities 3159,02
Average incubator space occupancy rate 77,67
Average incubation time (years) 3,06
Figure 15: some numbers on physical incubation in Europe (source: EBN Quality system)
Intellectual Property rights – particularly fundamental in innovation‐based incubators, since it mainly applies for the patenting of innovative products and services, the support on IP issues is also necessary for non innovative companies, if they intend to enter an existing market with products which may be already covered by patents.
Technology transfer – together with the intellectual property rights service, technology transfer falls in the sphere of the services for innovation, when specific new technologies need enter in the productive processes of start‐ups and of existing SMEs as well.
The early‐stage phase starts once the company has been established and makes the first attempts to enter the market, and ends when the company has reached maturity and is ready to walk on its own feet.
In this phase IBIs are frequently asked to provide, among others, the following services:
Access to funding – the need for investments might not be satisfied with early‐stage funding, and other opportunities must be provided to the entrepreneurs, such as facilitating the encounters with venture capitalists, through investment readiness services and mentoring.
Page | 22
Figure 16: breakdown of access to finance services offered in Europe by the BICs (Source: EBN Quality system)
Mentoring and coaching – a very fundamental service which should constantly be delivered by the IBI. A business expert should always be present in the IBI and available for answering to the matters daily brought forward by the assisted companies. It might be a good idea to enforce monthly meetings to assess the improvements of the SME’s in their path towards maturity.
Networking and clustering– the companies can benefit immensely from networking opportunities that can come from, for example, enacting commercialization services and business to business meetings, as well as from the support deriving in facilitating the entrance to the targeted markets. Providing access to clusters, or even animating/hosting clusters, is becoming a new profession for IBIs.
The assisted company will reach the expansion phase when it is deemed to be able to stand on its own feet and has reached a point where it has gained enough strength to exit the incubation process. To support the successful cases, an IBI should have in place exit strategies support services to ease the separation from the IBI and the full integration within the markets.
From now on the company can benefit from the services dedicated by an IBI to the existing SMEs of the region.
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Page | 23
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Page | 24
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Page | 25
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Page | 26
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Page | 27
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Page | 29
3. Networking of an IBI – for the benefit of an entrepreneur
The word “network” is defined as “a large system of many similar parts connected together to allow movement or communication between or along the parts or between the parts and a control centre”
In the case of an IBI it is possible to define two main networking domains, the first one being the region, where the main scope is to assure that the regional system for innovation, backed by the regional innovation strategies, recognizes the function and the value from the IBI. The second one is the over‐regional networking, where an IBI can find grounds to network and benchmark with its own kind, other IBIs present at national and/or international level, in other regions of the country or of the world.
While it has been already mentioned why regional networking is fundamental for the IBI once it has been positioned, why should it network at an over‐regional level? There are many answers, but experience has shown that the following are the most frequent:
• Networking enables to benchmark yourself with your peers, catch inspiration, and take appropriate measures for continuous improvement.
• Networking provides chances to meet other practitioners and develop common ideas that will benefit the regional system for innovation and the end‐users of the IBI.
• Networking provides chances to promote the innovations at an international level, which can lead to commercialization and internationalization opportunities for the entrepreneurs supported and the assisted SMEs.
• Some innovative companies are “born global” and can access international markets from the onset. Networking projects like the “Euroffice‐Network” allow young companies to explore international markets at very low costs, supporting them to take roots in many European markets at a time (e.g. soft landing, business boosting).
All the aforementioned reasons will better support the IBI in promoting itself and simultaneously increase its sustainability over time.
Networking is essential at all levels, international and national, and many networks exist, some being dedicated solely to IBIs for more general purposes, while others try to respond to specific niches of the IBI’s incubation processes and services.
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Page | 33
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Page | 34
Performance and efficiency check‐up – some IBIs may have found more efficient ways to provide services to innovative entrepreneurs and SMEs, and these practices could be transferred to IBIs which could in their turn improve their own performances. If an IBI doesn’t compare regularly with those of its own kind (IBIs with similar characteristics) it will be much harder to find ways to enhance the delivery of services, making best use of the available scarce resources.
Reporting – Shareholders and stakeholders would like to have an idea of their return on investment (ROI), and whether this can be incremented in some way, and are interested in learning if the overall regional system for innovation is producing results according to the expectations. Being able to report concrete figures and comparisons with other IBIs could highlight specific strengths (good for fund‐raising purposes) and weaknesses (good for developing actions to increase the efficiency levels).
Promotion – there is nothing better than good numbers to convince other entrepreneurs and SMEs to resort to the services of an IBI.
Fund‐raising – attracting more resources to the IBI to increase its potentialities can be better done if it demonstrates that there is a high return on the investment.
Networking – benchmarking provides a means to scout best practices and to understand how to transfer them to your IBI. Definitely an opportunity to start positive networking experiences with incubators which share a similar profile.
4.2 Indicators
Key Performance Indicators are quantifiable measurements, agreed beforehand, that reflect the critical success factors of an organization. They must be quantifiable and reflect the goals of the organization.
Process Indicators intend to provide an indication on the degree of efficiency reached in the achievement of the overall performances.
Specifically, performance indicators are associated to the final objectives of an IBI while process indicators are associated to the activities and services activated to reach the final goals.
Since Indicators per‐se loose much of their meaning if they are not related to the reality in which they have been calculated, it is advisable to use cost‐benefit ratios, that will allow to understand the quantified indicators in relations with the resources used to achieve the results.
Benchmarking with other IBIs requires:
1. The use of the same indicators 2. Making sure that these are interpreted homogenously 3. Making sure that the data collection activities are up‐to‐date
A practical method of identifying the right indicators is making sure that they are SMART indicators.
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Page | 35
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6. Bibliographic references
6.1 Publications
− “The European Business and Innovation Centres (BICs), European Commission, DG Regio Regional Policy, 2000
− “Benchmarking of Business Incubators”, European Commission, DG Enterprise and Industry, February 2002
− “BIC Observatory 2007” , European BIC Network, 2008
− “BIC Observatory 2009”, European BIC Network, 2009
− “Incubators’ manual for innovative projects – A guide throughout MEDA countries, Ahmed Gdoura, Lassaad Mezghani, Pedro Almeida, Medibitkar Program, June 2009
− “Measuring Your Business Incubator’s Economic Impact – A Toolkit, Meredith Erlewine, NBIA, 2007
− “The BIC Quality Mark Criteria”, approved by the BIC Quality Mark Committee and by the EC Commission, DG Enterprise and Industry on June 2008.
− “The Business Incubation Landscape in the UK”, UKBI Mapping Survey 2008
6.2 Websites
− European Commission, DG Regio: http://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/index_en.htm
− European Commission, DG Enterprise and Industry: http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/index_en.htm
− European Business and Innovation Centre network (EBN): http://www.ebn.eu
− UK Business Incubation (UKBI): http://www.ukbi.co.uk/
− International Association of Science Parks (IASP): http://www.iasp.ws/
− European BIC Network Quality Website: http://quality.ebn.be
− European Space Incubators Network (ESINET): http://www.esinet.eu/
− National Business Incubation Association (NBIA): http://www.nbia.org/
− Information for Development Program (InfoDev): http://www.infodev.org
European Commission
The Smart Guide to Innovation-Based Incubators (IBI) Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union 2010 — 39 pp. — 21 x 29.7 cm ISBN 978-92-79-14859-0 doi: 10.2776/16668
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