European Trends in Business Incubation Through open Innovation Approach

Abstract

The open innovation (OI) is the actual framework for exploiting external resources and wider networks in doing innovation instead of just operating with in-house resources. Business incubators ensure networking and facilitate OI collaborations both inside the incubator among entrepreneurs and outside with external stakeholders. The purpose of the qualitative study is to identify the European trends in business incubation through OI approach by setting two main tasks – 1) identify business incubation trends and 2) validate these theoretical findings by conducting the empirical study in Latvia business incubators and 3) draw the conclusions for business incubation practitioners in order to improve business incubation from OI perspective. The qualitative research methods applied – 1) literature review on business incubation trends, OI approach in business incubation such as service provision, online and onsite incubation, tenant OI competences and strategies, co-creation and collaboration and 2) the empirical qualitative research in Latvia business incubators by conducting incubator management (13) interviews. The results proved that the main national trends dominant and present in Latvian business incubation are corresponding to the European trends, namely, 1) incubators are serving as OI partners and are recognized by tenants as access providers to external resources ands networks; 2) networking as facilitating activity of the inside-out and outside-in OI strategies; 3) tenants’ OI strategies and motivation as well as variety of OI partners (experts, mentors, clients, companies, researchers, universities) promote the better incubation results in terms of ideas validated, product developed, companies created and innovation implemented. These results are in line with the main findings on European trends from a literature review perspective. This article provides national findings on OI application in business incubation as the empirical novelty for business incubation practitioners, academia, entrepreneurship support policy makers and tenants internationally detecting the crucial role of OI activities applied in business incubation and incubators as OI partners. Business incubation trend analysis through Open innovation approach is a novelty of this research. Key words: open innovation, open innovation strategies, business incubator, business incubation trends, value co-creation Acknowledgement This research was conducted within the project “Open Innovation, No1.1.1.2/VIAA/3/19/426” funded by Postdoctoral Research Support Aid programme of Latvia.

Open Innovation and Determinants of Technology-Driven Sustainable Value Creation in Incubated Start-Ups

“…The answers to this question were affected by the restrictions of the COVID pandemic with remote work. However, the literature review also reveals that the importance of premises in business incubation is decreasing, while the importance of remote or virtual incubation services is increasing [13].…”

“…In the second round, when interviewing experts, the questions were more focused on the OI ecosystem and the incubator's role in it, including the aspect of creating sustainable value. Since 2016 there have been 12 business incubators operated by LIDA and funded by public financing The focus of the literature review was on the latest trends in business incubation, particularly the OI approach in business incubation such as OI inbound and outbound practices, OI challenges and benefits; start-up performance such as competitiveness, innovation; start-up sustainability orientation, strategy, ambition, planetary boundaries, business modelling and value creation, particularly the deeper analysis of the technology-driven sustainable value creation [13]. Further details about the search criteria and bibliometric data sets are described within Section 2 of this article.…”

“…Business incubators have already proven their ability to act as a driving force for start-up companies and their support ecosystem. There is a fundamental reason to consider that business incubators have a hitherto underappreciated role in promoting sustainable, eco and social innovations directly in the start-up ecosystem, as they have a wide network of partners and tools for motivating the cooperation of various involved parties [13].…”

“…Latvia is a country motivated to strengthen its sustainability strategy and align it with more developed countries [15]. Moreover, the national innovation ecosystem of Latvia mostly focuses on technological innovations, and that is seen as an important driver for the technology-driven sustainable value creation in start-ups [16]. Previously, the authors emphasized challenges in Latvia for creating sustainable value.…”

Creation of Business Incubators in University Through the Perspective of Business Law

“…This model can aid in decision-making and the management of the efficacy and efficiency of the system. Using an open innovation perspective, Cirule, Uvarova, and Caune concentrate on European trends in business incubation, emphasizing the function of business incubators as conduits for access to outside networks and resources (Cirule et al, 2022). Using Kazakhstan and the Russian Federation as examples, the guidebook by Ali, Irfan, and Salman addresses the lessons to be learned from incubator methods in transitioning nations (Ali et al, 2022).…”