The Role of Business Incubators in Creating an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem: A Study of the Sultanate of Oman

Abstract

New entrepreneurs have to face multiple challenges in starting, growing and sustaining their businesses. In developing countries, these challenges can range from labour and market regulations, finding the right markets for products, finding appropriate sources of funding, education and training of entrepreneurs and a lack or R&D infrastructure (Shanfari, D., 2012). Many small businesses fail in the initial stages as the owners are unable to negotiate and find solutions to these multifarious challenges. In this context, business incubators are a much needed solution to enable SMEs to sustain and grow in the long run. Business incubation formally began in the US in the 1960s, and later developed in the UK and Europe through various related forms (e.g. Innovation centres, technopoles/science parks). It is recognized as a way of meeting a variety of economic and socio-economic policy needs which can include employment and wealth creation, support for small firms with high growth potential, transfer of technology, promoting innovation, enhancing links between universities, research institutions and the business community, industry cluster development and assessment of a company's risk profile. In general, an incubator is a physical location that provides a defined set of services to individuals or small companies. This may include specific types of office space, flexible lease terms, access to technology, financing, and technical assistance (such as marketing, legal, finance, HR, and other business development services). By locating similar or complementary entities in proximity to each other, the incubator may also play a critical role in

Entrepreneurship and SMEs Sustainable Development through Business Incubators: The case of Oman

“…It is widely recognized that business incubators play a vital role in contributing to the country's economy on a local, regional, national and global level (Campbell, 1989;AL Mubaraki, 2008;Ndabeni, 2008;Al Mubaraki et al, 2010;Dee et al, 2011;Lewis et al, 2011;Lose et al, 2016). Business Incubators have a positive impact on economic development and sustainability through job creation across different countries such as Oman, USA, China and Europe (Sanyal and Hisam, 2018;Wagner, 2006;Lalkaka, 2002;Ogutu and Kihonge, 2016). Moreover, Mahmood et al, (2015) and Markley and McNamara (1995) further confirmed that business incubators played a crucial role in creating, nurturing and sustaining SMEs in the local economy and in turn developing the economy of a nation.…”

“…These types of incubators support and assist SMEs in the manufacturing industry and tend to offer physical and production space and technical business assistance (Sanyal and Hisam, 2018;Al Mubartaki et al, 2010).…”

“…The national GDP has benefited from SMEs by 20% annually which contributes positively to economic development (Al Abri et al, 2018). However, in comparison with developed markets, where SMEs workforce account for 50-60% and on average 50-55% GDP contribution, it is vitally important to expedite the growth of SMEs sector in Oman considering the limited employment opportunities in the governmental agencies for Omanis and also to scale down the reliance on the hydrocarbon sector (Sanyal and Hisam, 2018). However, in order to support entrepreneurship and SMEs development and growth, it's important to highlight some of the challenges faced by SMEs in Oman in order to be considered within the frameworks developed by the various business incubators available in Oman.…”

The Development of an Interaction Mechanism between Universities and Other Innovation System Actors: Its Influence on University Innovation Activity Effectiveness

“…Forming the conditions for interaction, the business incubator is an ecosystem for the implementation of innovative projects, which allows using the potential of all entities of the virtual platform on the basis of integration processes and the integrated use of information technologies [49,50]. Thus, by combining conditions and resources, a controlled environment is created that allows business projects at any stage to effectively develop.…”

Role of Business Incubation in Sustaining Small and Medium Enterprises in the Kingdom of Eswatini

“…The establishment and encouragement of new businesses in a community is the main goal of BIs. In assisting entrepreneurs to start new businesses, the community enjoys benefits of increased employment opportunities, additional revenue, and prosperity (Sanyal & Hisamic, 2018).…”