Crisis Incubation: A New Phenomenon? : A comparative study

• Main Author: Kolbeinsson, Jóhann Bjarni
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: Uppsala universitet, Företagsekonomiska institutionen 2014
• Subjects: Business incubator; incubation; financial crisis; Iceland; entrepreneurship; start ups; comparison.
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-227088

The aim of this study is to examine incubators which were formed by Innovation Center Iceland right after the financial crisis hit in 2008. The question is whether a new concept can be defined, or a new phenomenon, called “crisis incubation”. This is a concept that has not been studied before. This research is carried out by comparing the incubators formed in Iceland with incubators in six other European countries before the crisis hit, and see if there are any differences between the entrepreneurial processes. According to the study, the main differences between traditional incubators and crisis incubators are the following: Access to crisis incubators is much easier, incubatees within crisis incubators are much less likely to experience problems after they have entered the incubators, and they are much more likely to solve problems they experience. The only problem that incubatees in a crisis incubator are more likely to experience is obtaining finance. The study also finds some similarities between traditional incubators and crisis incubators. Overall, the main results strongly indicate that the differences between the two concepts are so great, that a new phenomenon can be defined, although further research is needed.