Empowering IT entrepreneurships: what's the contribution of business incubators?

Abstract

This article aims to analyze the contribution of Business Incubators for small IT business. In this way, a deep research in three Brazilian IT Incubators was developed. We investigated the perception of incubators' managers, tenant and graduated entrepreneurs regarding to the key elements of incubation process, as support and infrastructure, university-incubator interaction, and management training. Our findings indicate some deficiencies in IT Incubators, predominantly in prospecting customers, attracting financial resources, and establishing relationships within universities and research centers.