Factors that determine the degree of fulfilment of expectations for entrepreneurs from the business incubator programmes

Abstract

The uncertain economic situation that was experienced because of the global financial crisis in 2008 and the exponential growth in the use of new technologies in different industries has caused some individuals to become entrepreneurs through the development of a variety of new skills. The main objective of this research paper is to discover what factors significantly determine the degree of fulfilment of expectations for entrepreneurs who have graduated from the incubator programme. Entrepreneurs may expect that a business incubator programme is a key element for their economic development and that it provides them with skills for good image and professional recognition. From the methodological point of view, a survey technique was conducted on 100 entrepreneurs who had already graduated from different business incubator programmes in Madrid, Spain. For the data exploration phase, an Exploratory Factor Analysis was used, which made it possible to identify 10 factors. With the Multiple Linear Regression analysis, these newly created and named factors were ordered by level of importance. The main findings show that most statistically significant factors consist of variables that are related to behaviour, attitude and hard skills (trained).In turn, results demonstrate that soft skills (innate) also play a certain role for fulfilling expectations for developing a successful company. Study confirms that continuous managerial training programmes for entrepreneurs in the twenty-first century are a substantial part for obtaining new skills, knowledge, insights, experiences, and change of behaviours and attitudes of different aspects needed for successful company leadership and management.