Eresia-Eke, Chukuakadibia E.Iwu, Chux GervaseJaiyeola, Afeez OlalekanMusikavanhu, Tichaona Buzy2020-03-182020-03-182019Eresia-Eke, C., Iwu, C.G., Jaiyeola, A.O. et al. 2019, 'A scrutiny of the essence of business incubators in the distribution sector', Journal of Distribution Science, vol. 17, no. 6, pp. 5-13.1738-3110 (print)2093-7717 (online)10.15722/jds.17.06.201906.5http://hdl.handle.net/2263/73798PURPOSE : The potential for small businesses in the distribution sector to contribute to socio-economic development remains largely inert due to a litany of challenges that they face. Incubators have emerged as the ‘silver bullet’ for most of the problems but the extent to which they are effectively helping small business overcome their challenges remains debatable. This study seeks to determine the core reasons why respondents enrolled in an incubator, the essence of the incubator and the extent to which the incubator performance is satisfactory. RESEARCH DESIGN, DATA, AND METHODOLOGY : A positivist philosophical approach was adopted for the study. This quantitative study used a survey method to collect data from incubatees in a cross-sectional manner. The data were subsequently analysed to generate necessary insights. RESULTS : Results reveal that the gender composition of incubatees is severely skewed in favour of males. Also, most incubatees enrolled in the incubators with a hope that it would ease their pathway to big businesses, financiers and business registration institutions, and it is not. CONCLUSION : Incubators are mostly inward-looking and are adept at offering training interventions. To improve the effectiveness of incubators, it is necessary to invest efforts in attracting more females and building networks with key external stakeholders that could possibly assist the incubatees establish and grow their businesses.en© Copyright: Korean Distribution Science Association (KODISA). This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License.IncubatorSmall businessStart-upEntrepreneurshipDistributionSouth Africa (SA)Article