Networking skills of government-funded incubator managers as perceived by incubatees

Abstract

The link between entrepreneurship and economic growth is well-established. Incubators aim to stimulate entrepreneurship, and one of the factors which contributes to effective incubation is networking. Previous research on the role of networking in entrepreneurship has not focused on how incubatees experience the incubator managers’ networking skills and how these skills contribute to the performance of the incubatees’ ventures while in incubation. The main purpose of this research was to evaluate the contribution of the networking skills of government-funded incubator managers, as perceived by incubatees, to effective incubation. Networking skills were defined as the provision of access by incubator managers to their networks, to incubatees, as well as the facilitation of collaboration by incubator managers between their networks and incubatees. A quantitative study was performed, using a questionnaire to determine incubatees’ perceptions of the various networking skills of the relevant incubator managers, as well as the incubatees’ growth in sales. The population of the study consisted of 565 incubatees currently in incubation at government-funded incubators in South Africa who had access to the questionnaire, and a response rate of 18.4% was realised. The results indicated highly significant correlations, at the 1% level of significance between the networking skills of government-funded incubator managers, as perceived by incubatees, and effective incubation.