ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the evolution of the incubator from a support mechanism for high-tech firms to a methodology for creating organizations to achieve a range of objectives. The incubator movement with perhaps the broadest scope is in Brazil, where several types of incubators have been invented to mentor low-technology firms, cooperatives, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) as well as high-tech firms. Incubation is also part of a general model for the management of knowledge and technology in regional development. Science-based economic development efforts typically utilize a series of organizational innovations such as science parks and research centers as well as the incubator. Combining a strategy of academic and regional development, the contemporary university business incubator is part of a complex of organizational innovations targeted at the application of science to invention and of finance to the commercialization of research.
