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Business Incubators and Customer Satisfaction - Incubator services entrepreneurs really need

Frauen, Benedict LU and Christel, Philipp LU (2015) ENTN19 20151
Department of Business Administration
Abstract
Incubators can widely be defined as an organization, providing moderately priced office space and central
services to young companies with the goal to support the start of these firms (Allen & McCluskey, 1990).
However, the variety of incubator services is high, and there is limited research in the field of customer
satisfaction in incubators. Therefore, the aim of this study is to enhance the knowledge about the importance
of particular incubator services and its impact on customer satisfaction, considering the entrepreneur’s
background (previous knowledge, experience and education). The main practical purpose of this study is to
show incubator management how to evaluate the offered services. For this purpose, the Kano model is used... (More)
Incubators can widely be defined as an organization, providing moderately priced office space and central
services to young companies with the goal to support the start of these firms (Allen & McCluskey, 1990).
However, the variety of incubator services is high, and there is limited research in the field of customer
satisfaction in incubators. Therefore, the aim of this study is to enhance the knowledge about the importance
of particular incubator services and its impact on customer satisfaction, considering the entrepreneur’s
background (previous knowledge, experience and education). The main practical purpose of this study is to
show incubator management how to evaluate the offered services. For this purpose, the Kano model is used
as research instrument to characterize the different incubator services based on data from 32 interviews with
entrepreneurs located in the IDEON Science Park as well as the Medicon Village in Lund, Sweden. The
findings reveal three ‘must-be’ services which need to be provided by every incubator in order to obtain
customer satisfaction: ‘Affordable space and building facilities’, ‘General counseling/mentoring’ and ‘Peer
networking (Sharing information, experience, problems)’. Furthermore, the findings indicate that previous
start-up experience of the entrepreneur has an impact on the incubator services required by the entrepreneur.
This study gives relevant insights for research about entrepreneurs’ needs and shows incubator managements
how and where to allocate financial and human resources. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Frauen, Benedict LU and Christel, Philipp LU
supervisor
organization
course
ENTN19 20151
year
type
H1 - Master's Degree (One Year)
subject
keywords
Incubators, Customer satisfaction, Entrepreneur, Start-up experience, Incubator services, Kano model
language
English
id
7508968
date added to LUP
2015-08-10 14:34:06
date last changed
2015-08-10 14:34:06
@misc{7508968,
  abstract     = {{Incubators can widely be defined as an organization, providing moderately priced office space and central
services to young companies with the goal to support the start of these firms (Allen & McCluskey, 1990).
However, the variety of incubator services is high, and there is limited research in the field of customer
satisfaction in incubators. Therefore, the aim of this study is to enhance the knowledge about the importance
of particular incubator services and its impact on customer satisfaction, considering the entrepreneur’s
background (previous knowledge, experience and education). The main practical purpose of this study is to
show incubator management how to evaluate the offered services. For this purpose, the Kano model is used
as research instrument to characterize the different incubator services based on data from 32 interviews with
entrepreneurs located in the IDEON Science Park as well as the Medicon Village in Lund, Sweden. The
findings reveal three ‘must-be’ services which need to be provided by every incubator in order to obtain
customer satisfaction: ‘Affordable space and building facilities’, ‘General counseling/mentoring’ and ‘Peer
networking (Sharing information, experience, problems)’. Furthermore, the findings indicate that previous
start-up experience of the entrepreneur has an impact on the incubator services required by the entrepreneur.
This study gives relevant insights for research about entrepreneurs’ needs and shows incubator managements
how and where to allocate financial and human resources.}},
  author       = {{Frauen, Benedict and Christel, Philipp}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Business Incubators and Customer Satisfaction - Incubator services entrepreneurs really need}},
  year         = {{2015}},
}