Publicação
Entrepreneurship in Northeast Brazil : an evaluation of business incubators in the region
| Resumo: | This research has been conducted in the Brazil’s Northeast region, economically the weakest region in the country. A total of 35 business incubators (97%) and 93 firms (29%) were surveyed by questionnaire and interviews were conducted in 14 incubators in order to map the region’s incubators and to evaluate the practice and the possible impact of this economic development tool. In our analysis we found evidence of structural and administrative failures, absence of adequate business development and financial instability due to a low level of public investment. Since there is no clear policy, each incubator is an independent initiative of either a public or private university, a technology park, a science department of local government or a non-profit organization. The lack of adequate finance has as a consequence the prevalence of software firms on the expense of other innovative sectors and the abundance of part-time incubator and firm personnel and, more importantly, it also brings about part-time entrepreneurs. Apart of a relatively small fraction of strong and effective incubators, the majority of the surveyed incubators performs an incorrect firm selection process, does not define a fixed period for firms graduating from the incubator and in general provides the firm with facilities but not with consistent consulting on most of the relevant areas of business development. The dissertation concludes that this economic development tool can be put to greater advantage of the region, if given policy and managerial changes are introduced in the near future. |
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| Autores principais: | Alon, Ido |
| Assunto: | Northeast Brazil Business Incubators Entrepreneurship Israel Benchmarking Evaluation Nordeste do Brasil Incubadoras de Empresas Empreendedorismo avaliação |
| Ano: | 2013 |
| País: | Portugal |
| Tipo de documento: | dissertação de mestrado |
| Tipo de acesso: | acesso aberto |
| Instituição associada: | Universidade de Lisboa |
| Idioma: | inglês |
| Origem: | Repositório da Universidade de Lisboa |
| Resumo: | This research has been conducted in the Brazil’s Northeast region, economically the weakest region in the country. A total of 35 business incubators (97%) and 93 firms (29%) were surveyed by questionnaire and interviews were conducted in 14 incubators in order to map the region’s incubators and to evaluate the practice and the possible impact of this economic development tool. In our analysis we found evidence of structural and administrative failures, absence of adequate business development and financial instability due to a low level of public investment. Since there is no clear policy, each incubator is an independent initiative of either a public or private university, a technology park, a science department of local government or a non-profit organization. The lack of adequate finance has as a consequence the prevalence of software firms on the expense of other innovative sectors and the abundance of part-time incubator and firm personnel and, more importantly, it also brings about part-time entrepreneurs. Apart of a relatively small fraction of strong and effective incubators, the majority of the surveyed incubators performs an incorrect firm selection process, does not define a fixed period for firms graduating from the incubator and in general provides the firm with facilities but not with consistent consulting on most of the relevant areas of business development. The dissertation concludes that this economic development tool can be put to greater advantage of the region, if given policy and managerial changes are introduced in the near future. |
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