Business incubators: their definition, objectives, activities, and their economic and social importance

Business incubators are considered one of the most effective and successful systems that have been invented in recent decades in accelerating the implementation of economic and technological development programs and creating new job opportunities, which have been used in many industrial and developing countries alike.

The importance of business incubators has emerged in order to pay attention to and provide small and medium enterprises with all the ingredients they need for success, continuity, and the embodiment of ideas on the ground and transforming them into marketable products.
Definition of business incubators

Business incubators are an institutional building dedicated to assisting newly established businesses, as well as establishments that are in the process of growth, to help them stay in the market as long as possible, and many services and administrative facilities can be provided, whether they are various financial or administrative facilities.

It is also a governmental or private institutional building that exercises a set of activities aimed at providing advice, advice, services, and financial, administrative and technical assistance to businesses and small industries, whether in the early stages of starting the activity or during its practice, or through the stages of growth experienced by the various establishments. It also provides These incubators provide opportunities for the company in office services, equipment, machinery, leasing and technology transfer.
Objectives of business incubators:

    Develop new ideas to create and find new creative projects or help expand existing projects.
    Assisting invention and innovation owners in transforming their ideas into marketable products, models or processes.
    Providing support, financing, guidance services and facilities available to its affiliates.
    Providing services to funding agencies in terms of research, knowledge, training, supervision and monitoring to increase and enhance growth.
    Reviewing the operations of its affiliates periodically to achieve the set goals.

Activities related to business incubators

There are many activities related to business incubators, including:

    Providing the necessary needs and support for technology.
    Guiding and directing the incubator's employees.
    Training of affiliate project staff.
    Building a model structure for establishing and establishing new businesses and companies.
    Providing numerous and sufficient locations to receive associate clients, laboratories and workshops.
    Providing administrative and marketing support and assistance.
    Providing financial assistance and advice.
    Getting to know investors and strategic partners.

Economic importance of business incubators:
First: Encouraging and developing small and medium enterprises

Where these incubators are based mainly on facing the huge rise in the failure rates in which these small projects fall due to the lack of people to incubate them to face the economic market and the challenges that exist in it.

The extent of its effectiveness in supporting and developing small and medium enterprises and supporting economic development, as well as supporting entrepreneurs, can be summarized in the following points:

Funding sources

Where incubators can help their affiliated enterprises to facilitate communication with those wishing to invest in these enterprises while they are in the process of growth, and thus ease their communication together, and the incubators themselves can participate in the ownership of these facilities, and thus support them financially, which is what many governments have already provided to support incubators Business and stimulating it for its effective role in the national economy.

Legal Services

Where new establishments need many legal services that may be provided and supported by incubators, such as the procedures for establishing and registering and writing licensing contracts, as well as with regard to the protection of intellectual property and patents, where business incubators usually play the role of mediator between their affiliated establishments and the bodies that provide legal services to facilitate and support for these facilities.

Extensive communication networks

Where business incubators hold and facilitate seminars and exhibitions with the aim of attracting and attracting many financiers of small projects, and thus support entrepreneurs in implementing and activating their innovations, in preparation for their communication with their affiliated enterprises, as well as working on publishing and promoting on means of communication on social networks, among other things. Among them, at the local or global level, to find out what is new, as well as to participate in the exchange of diverse experiences and strive towards achieving integration.

Administrative, training, marketing and advisory services

It begins by providing administrative services by business incubators to the enterprises and small projects affiliated with them, in the evaluation stage. It also provides various training services to develop the skills of entrepreneurs, in addition to providing marketing services to the enterprises affiliated with the incubators by other enterprises specialized in this field and are also affiliated with it. for the same incubators.

Consulting services for business incubators are represented in assisting in setting policies, setting goals, selecting and hiring executive managers, as well as monitoring the interaction and growth of small projects that they support and are affiliated with.

Infrastructure

Incubators provide infrastructure for small and medium enterprises to which the necessary basic facilities are affiliated with laboratories, laboratories and equipment, and additional needs of hardware, software, information technology services and communications networks, and some small incubators also make the necessary arrangements to provide the infrastructure requirements for their affiliated enterprises through participation or coordination With universities or by renting or any other means.

Providing technical services

The existence of an environment conducive to technology transfer is a basic requirement for the success of business incubators in obtaining the facilities affiliated with them to the technologies necessary for their development and growth, as they work to achieve cooperation and coordination between technology transfer programs and incubators, while providing ways, methods and tools for their use by experts and specialists, as well as arranging