Investigating and evaluating of different incubators models

Incubators assist emerging ventures by providing support services and assistance in developing their business. We map business incubators into four categories: Business Innovation Centers (BICs), University Business Incubators (UBIs), Independent Private Incubators (IPIs) and Corporate Private Incubators (CPIs). We then argue that the variety of incubating organization is driven by the evolution of companies, requirements and needs, which encourage incubators to differentiate the range of services that they offer. We believe that differences in the way incubators run their business can be described by two main incubating models (model 1 and model 2), providing incubators with useful indications on how to position themselves strategically. We identify a list of incubator "characterizing" variable to highlight the main differences between the four types of incubators and to describe the incubating models.