The entrepreneurial ventures social interaction with the business incubator management and the relationship's impact on firm performance

This cross-cultural research project, involving the United States and Finland, explores the factors of success that high technology entrepreneurial ventures encounter when linked with a university business incubator. Business incubators are organizations that serve to promote the economic development of a region. Universities establish or closely link themselves with business incubators to commercialize innovative activity. This research examines how the social relationship that develops between the incubator manager and the high technology entrepreneurial firm impacts the performance of the firm. It is hypothesized that the established social structure of the university business incubator will have a positive impact on the firm acquiring business processes knowledge. And, the acquisition of the business processes knowledge will have a positive impact on the overall productivity of the firm as well as its technological capabilities. This study found that firms acquire knowledge from the incubator manager. However, this does not always translate into the primary reason for a firm's success. The most useful knowledge an incubator manager can share with a firm is business knowledge preferable to technical knowledge. Lastly, the reputation benefits of joining an incubator are very advantageous to entrepreneurial firms associated with business incubators.