Elaboration of Foundations of University Business Incubator Platform

Abstract

Business incubator (BI) and university business incubators (UBIs) are a quite recent innovation but it has become a useful tool for business development. Despite some experiments, for Georgian public and businesses BI/UBI concept is still known as interesting theoretical but not practical idea. A set of surveys conducted by international organizations as well as individual scholars have revealed the main obstacles in doing business in Georgia. “Inadequately educated workforce” is one of the most serious problem. The authors’ surveys show the strong demand for BIs/UBIs services from the business side; on another hand, a background for their establishment in terms of university students’ skills and their willingness to start own business has been built. University based business incubators might be the most suitable and efficient type of BIs in Georgia. To realize this idea we have to learn a worldwide practice. The paper reviews the extent literature that examines the critical role of BIs/ UBIs in developed and developing economies. Based on this, the foundations of UBIs were proposed.