Policy Gaps and the Role of Business Incubators in Entrepreneurial Promotion in Uttarakhand

Abstract

Business incubators are gaining wider acceptance as a mechanism for promoting small business development and job creation globally. Increasing attention has been devoted to their role and the policy context in which they are embedded. Many countries see them as a means of increasing business formation through the provision of complementary assets and a ‘safety net’. Incubators are celebrated as a ‘good practice’ among practitioners and policy-makers involved in small business development. In most parts of the world, business incubation is still in the early stages of development. Incubation is a relatively novel concept and approach to business development in developing countries and transition economies. Effective incubation can deliver positive results if it is supported by a conducive policy framework. With this in mind, previous studies have presented detailed case studies of successful business incubators and sketched out rules and recommendations for new and existing efforts.

Business Incubation (BI) has been interpreted as the process of supporting new and startup firms (also known as enterprises, ventures and businesses) with the intention to improve their chances for success. Business Incubators (BIs) are institutions or organizations pursuing the goal to foster business development of startup ventures through a variety of support mechanisms in a controlled environment. BIs are said to offer a suitable way to embed and initiate early stage ventures into an ecosystem of expertise, thus increasing their chances for success and survival (S & I.A, 2014). For the better or worse, the entrepreneurial ecology or ecosystem of a region is molded and shaped by explicit and implicit policies and regulations at the local, state and federal levels. Political and bureaucratic partisanship arises from conflicting priorities of the various entities and the market inefficiencies that are often created through business and budget allocation strategies.