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JOURNAL OF INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH
capital businesses of risky capital with aim to partake on
innovative business of companies with residence in these
incubators. They focus on transfer of technologies and
application of technological novelties. This way, new profession
of incubator businesses is created (share of private incubators in
the USA is 20%).
Incubators with profitable development of ownership. They are
aimed at acquiring profit from property rental and from services
provided. Primary condition of candidate acceptance is their
ability to pay the rent.
Incubators as non-profit corporations. They focus on creating
new working possibilities. The condition for acceptance is
potential to create conditions for unemployment decrease in a
region.
Academic incubators. They are created on a base of
commercialisation of university research and cooperation of
faculties with an industry. The motive for acceptation is
technological intensity of company from the point of connection
with the university.
Profitable capital incubators. They are created by strong
investors with an aim to broaden possibilities for investment
businesses.
To offset the risks associated with start-ups, European
governments increasingly support them through incubators:
organizations that provide start-ups with a broad range of
services and resources needed for survival and growth (Aerts et
al, 2007; Bergek and Norrman, 2008; Bruneel et al, 2012). It is
estimated that there are currently over 1000 European
incubators, 85% of which is located in Western European
countries, and that their number has seen a fivefold increase
between 2007 and 2013 (Aerts et al, 2007). Accordingly,
incubators are considered to be‘the mainstays of high-technology
industrial development in Europe’ (Oakey, 2012), and ‘an
institutionalized component of the EU’s and its member states’
national innovation systems’ (Ahmad and Ingl, 2013).
The efforts of Western European policy makers to support start-
ups through incubators are in line with a global trend: the
number of incubators increases rapidly around the world, which
has led to a diverse global population of incubators and related
start-up support initiatives (Aerts et al, 2007; Chandra et al,
2012). This provides an ‘immense opportunity’ for incubators all
over the world to learn from each other and improve themselves
(Ahmad and Ingle, 2013; Aernoudt, 2004; Tavoletti, 2013;
Terjesen et al, 2013).
From the current perspective it is obvious, that in a practice there
is no clear line between individual forms of innovative
workplaces or new incubator companies. They share a common
activity, directed towards establishment of prospering innovative
companies. As a kind of superior term it is used in science-
technology parks, which subsumes also mentioned types. In
Slovak conditions, there is acceptable such solution, that the
term science-technology park is a term superior to all other types
of parks, centres and it includes these three main types:
Science park (centre),
Technological park (centre),
Business-innovation centre (in countries of EU as well as in
Slovakia called Business Innovation Centre - BIC).
If we were to find out causes of establishment of current centres,
we would get to two important moments.
First phase leads us to urgent need to solve unemployment issue,
which appears in different regions and countries due to various
structural changes and crises. For example, establishment of the
first business incubator ever. It happened in the USA in 1957,
when company Massey-Ferguson dismissed 2000 employees in
a town with 17 000 inhabitants, unemployment level rose over
20 %. Empty industrial objects with an area over 70 000 m
2
were
purchased for e very favourable price by Joe Manccuso with a
promise to provide for the town different industrialist and start
production. He could not find anybody. Later, he came up with
an idea to divide object into smaller parts and offer them to small
businesses. He not only rented empty spaces, but also organised
committees and help to young entrepreneurs, such as how to
obtain starting capital. How was term incubator created? One of
first tenants owned company dealing with chicken hatchery. Joe
Manccuso, inspired by this idea, named his business centre an
incubator. From that time, he "hatched" in his incubator more
than 600 companies, all have been successfully developed and
contributed to employment as well as economic development of
town Batawia as well as its surroundings.
Second phase directs us to maybe distant need of solving
problems of difficult and timely implementation of results into
technological research and development into practice. There was
a broad gulf between university science and industrial practice
that was very difficult to overcome. There is another example
from American practice, where unsatisfied university graduates
as well as university assistant staff started founding small
flexible companies, in very simple conditions, but with a huge
enthusiasm, they applied theoretical knowledge into specific and
commercially usable form. This companies made a history as
"garage companies".
Their business inexperience had some negative aspects, such as a
high rate of company failures: 50 % of them did not survive two
to three years and 80% did not survive from four till five years.
How was the phenomena of "Science Park" created? We could
not find out exactly which American university first came out
with an idea to create more dignified conditions for their
activities. It is said, it was University City Science Centre of
Philadelphia, which in the 60's years built a centre with functions
of an incubator. There were other centres created nearby
universities, they were named Science parks.
Currently, not only in the USA, but also in the EU we can
observe that business incubators copy many elements from
science parks. There is a higher interest to include preferably
such companies that are innovation and technology oriented and
which are anticipated to be big competitor. It means, that these
companies start their business plans more often from offers of
university centres of technology transfer.
Science-technology parks located nearby universities are getting
closer to business incubators, because here is still more often
exercised commercial side and requirements for every high-tech
company to be successful on a market. Therefore, management
of science parks must focus on marketing, searching for
consumption possibilities or organising common expositions at
exhibitions and fairs. In Slovakia, business incubators can help
to:
create new work places with high added value,
strengthen competitive ability of Slovakia and earn "hard"
money,
commercialise accessible technology,
develop experience in system of free business.
In accordance with opinion of ours as well as foreign experts,
business innovation as well as birth of business incubators in our
country should incline especially to fields of technological
business.
One of the most serious causes of economic development,
improvement of Slovak economic is generally low effectivity of
production system caused by lower level of technologies.
Success of economic reform is conditioned by creation of capital
resources, by quick technical development and wide application
of modern technologies. Overall process will be successful in
production sphere only under assumption that in our production-
economic units will be realised high-tech, progressive and
outstanding technologies corresponding world level. One of the
main processes securing modern technologies in business sphere
and their transfer. It is process of realising technical solutions,
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