Social Capital in University Business Incubators: dimensions, antecedents and outcomes

Abstract

While many universities around the world have devoted resources to create University Business Incubators (UBIs), the literature has neglected the study of the social capital acquired by the entrepreneurs located in university incubators. The current work analyses how incubator managers can contribute to the development of both incubator and incubatee social capital as well as the influence of social capital to the success of incubatee businesses. The empirical study is based on survey data collected from incubatees on Spanish and Dutch UBIs. The findings reveal that the entrepreneurial profile of the university and the incubator manager proactivity are critical to build a collective social capital amongst the entrepreneurs. Results indicate that the collective social capital foster the individual social capital. However, only entrepreneurs’ relationships with external agents (bridging social capital) are relevant to their businesses whereas internal relationships (bonding social capital) have not a significant effect.