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ABSTRACTBusiness incubators (BIs) provide entrepreneurs with access to critical resources (for example, physical, financial, knowledge, social, legitimacy, and so on) that support venture development. Little is known about how support needs differ between entrepreneurs pursuing technology-based (TB) and creative-industry (CI) opportunities. Yet these differences may affect their ability to benefit from incubation. This is the first comparative study addressing this gap. Focusing on university BIs, our qualitative analysis reveals that TB entrepreneurs benefit from physical capital supporting proof of concept, financial grants, and technical and industry-specific knowledge capital. In contrast, CI entrepreneurs benefit from physical capital supporting product development, financing of smaller-scale projects, and knowledge capital focused on business basics. External legitimacy was more important to TB entrepreneurs, while internal social capital mattered more to CI entrepreneurs. We draw on value creation and capture to explain these differences. The findings have implications for research and practice concerned with incubation and university-based entrepreneurial support.

AbstractThis qualitative study explores what dimensions of entrepreneurial coaching matter to women during business incubation and why. This issue is important because Canada is a world leader in the rate of entrepreneurial activity and business incubation support, yet women are underrepresented and their coaching needs are not well understood. Purposive sampling was employed to recruit 15 participants (6 women, 5 men, 4 coaches) from four Canadian incubators. Data was collected using semi-structured interviews. NVivo software facilitated coding and gender comparisons. Analysis followed the Gioia methodology for grounded theorizing which revealed 52 second-order concepts that grouped into three primary coaching dimensions (venture support, emotional support, gender inclusivity). Men and women value these dimensions differently. The emergent theoretical model suggests that for women entrepreneurs, business expertise (a dimension of venture support), emotional support, and gender inclusivity influence the development of entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ESE), which, in turn, contributes to entrepreneurial outcomes (venture and personal development) during business incubation. The coach’s personal investment and the entrepreneur’s coachability influences these relationships. The findings have implications for future research exploring incubation as a gendered phenomenon, and for incubator managers and policy makers concerned with designing inclusive incubation programs and reducing the gender gap in Canadian entrepreneurship.

This paper addresses the question of why some firms are more effective than others at responding to competency-destroying technological changes. A conceptual model is developed which suggests that responsiveness is a function of how firm's develop their "absorptive capacity" (Cohen & Levinthal, 1990). The critical role played by the firm's technology sourcing practices is discussed. The macro processes of technical and economic change are also considered, in terms of how they shape the firm's technology sourcing strategy.