Examining the Small Business Incubator Explosion

The growth of “incubators” as an economic development strategy for small businesses has exploded into a myriad of choices and options. This has confused community leaders and business people alike as to the appropriate approach for an incubator project. With such a diversity existing in the structure and purpose of incubators, a clear analysis of these new facilities would provide a better insight into understanding their services. This paper attempts to explain the incubator concept, examine they types of methods of incubator projects, and analyze the differences in services, structure, goals and results. A projected 150 incubators will be functional during 1986. This analysis may serve to understand the overall objective in incubator projects as they continue to be initiated.