Call the midwife! Business incubators as entrepreneurial enablers in developing economies

ABSTRACT

Enabling domestic entrepreneurship is one pathway for alleviating poverty. In developing economies, however, public policies prioritize health and education above entrepreneurship promotion. While international development funding has traditionally supported social and environmental interventions, more recent corporate philanthropic funding has been invested in business incubators to support domestic entrepreneurship. This article examines how business incubation and enterprise development impact on poverty alleviation in developing economies. From the analysis of empirical data gathered from four philanthropy-funded business incubators, their role in how sustainable new venture creation and multiple capital formation contributes to poverty alleviation is explained. The findings contribute to entrepreneurship enablement theory.

KEYWORDS:

• Business incubators
• enterprise development
• poverty alleviation
• philanthropy
• entrepreneurship enablement
• wealth creation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.