Date of Award

2019

Document Type

Master Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Business (Research)

Department

Management & Enterprise

First Advisor

Dr. Breda kenny

Second Advisor

Dr. Helen Mc Guirk

Abstract

Business incubators offer physical and virtual services for their new and growing start up clients. In Ireland, once companies exit an incubator, they do not have access to services similar to an incubator. In other countries there are post incubation services available.

There is a limited literature on post incubation in Ireland, however there is literature focusing on different programmes available to companies once they have left an incubator.

This thesis explores the post incubation support needs of new' and growing ventures.

Specifically, the research focused on three primary objectives:

1. To gain a deeper understanding of the specific needs of companies as they progress out of incubation centres

2. To gauge the level of interest and demand for post incubation support services

3. To develop a framework and guidelines for delivering effective post incubation services.

This thesis is based on research focusing mainly on one large incubator in Ireland. The perspectives of three distinct groups on incubation provision were studied current and past incubation clients and incubation centre managers. This incubator has a wide range of clients from different industries such as the medical device industry, Pharma, IT and sales. Data were collected in three stages. First, a survey of all the clients past and present of the incubator; second, a survey of incubator managers in Ireland and third, in depth interviews with clients from the incubator.

This study results illustrate a need for the post-incubation service in Ireland that is not being provided as of yet. All companies that were in the incubator for a short or long duration benefited in different ways from the incubator. The results provide evidence for a need for post- incubation services and provides an outline of the appropriate service provision for support beyond the incubator.

These findings contribute to framing a structure to a potential post incubation service available in Ireland in the future.

Access Level

info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess

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