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Business Incubators and Sustainability: A Literature Review

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International Journal of Advanced Engineering Research

and Science (IJAERS)


Peer-Reviewed Journal
ISSN: 2349-6495(P) | 2456-1908(O)
Vol-9, Issue-9; Sep, 2022
Journal Home Page Available: https://ijaers.com/
Article DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.22161/ijaers.99.51

Business Incubators and Sustainability: A Literature


Review
Samuel Carvalho de Azevedo Marques1, Hugo Saba2, Ingrid Winkler3, Aloisio Santos
Nascimento Filho4

1Doutorando, PPG em Gestão & Tecnologia Industrial SENAI Cimatec University Center, Brazil
2Department of Exact and Earth Sciences, Universidade do Estado da Bahia, Brazil
3,4Professor, PPG em Gestão & Tecnologia Industrial, Department of Management and Industrial Technology, SENAI Cimatec University

Center, Brazil

Received: 26 Aug 2022, Abstract— Incubators are models to support entrepreneurship, being
Received in revised form: 19 Sep 2022, central to economic growth and as catalysts for the formation of new
business. Incubators have a practical relevance as an effective mechanism
Accepted: 24 Sep 2022,
to support small business development. In relation to the sustainability,
Available online: 30 Sep 2022 however, few authors have explored the notion of incubation for
©2022 The Author(s). Published by AI sustainability to meet global development agendas. The incubator-
Publication. This is an open access article sustainability relationship in practice can support sustainable
under the CC BY license development through new companies and incubators profiled on
(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). sustainable. Few attentions have been given to the engagement of
incubators in activities aimed at sustainable development. In this sense,
Keywords— Business incubator,
the present study aims to investigate the application of the term
Entrepreneurship, Sustainability, Sustainable
sustainability in studies on business incubators. For this a literature
Development.
review study was conducted, based on the Preferred Reporting Items for
Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) and bibliometric
techniques. This review identifies links between incubators and
sustainability and observes differences in the application of the notion of
sustainability. From the analysis updated terms emerges related to
sustainability may represent trends and new areas of interest. The findings
of the review highlight that knowledge is expanding and still need to be
deepened for strengthen the role of incubators in sustainable development.
As limitations, we can highlight the lack of clear definition of concepts
and a research agenda on the topic. At the end, it is suggested that future
work may expand the research on incubators and sustainability.

I. INTRODUCTION phenomenon. There is a growing variety of incubator


Business incubators emerged within the scope of models, defined with heterogeneity and specialization of
entrepreneurship to support the creation of new businesses the phenomenon (Klofsten et al., 2020). There are both
and ventures at an early stage. Its traditional focus is technology-based incubators, with others for social
linked to inexperienced entrepreneurs, technology-based purposes, government incubators, corporate incubators in
incubation, with emphasis on university-based incubators companies and incubators created by academic
and a regional development focus. Hausberg and Korreck institutions, aimed at meeting economic and social
(2020) note that other formats of incubators, such as demands.
accelerators, have emerged and reconfigured the

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Marques et al. International Journal of Advanced Engineering Research and Science, 9(9)-2022

The number of incubators has exceeded 7,000 units theoretical developments of this incubator-sustainability
worldwide (Eveleens et al., 2017). Mian et al. (2021) relationship that in practice can support sustainable
identified the existence of more than 1,400 incubators in development through new companies (Bank et al., 2017).
the United States, according to data from iNBIA. Mian et This study began with a question concerning the
al. (2021) discusses this universe from information application of the concept of sustainability in business
collected in national and regional professional associations incubators research and incubation. It was found that the
of incubators and web sources, on the numbers of existing relationship between these elements has not yet been
incubation programs in several countries: Germany, three analyzed in studies and reviews, being an opportunity to
hundred (BVIZ, 2019); Brazil, 363 (ANPROTEC, 2019); present a synthesis of this knowledge in the field of
China, 670; and India, 276 (IIM, 2019). business incubation. With the absence of systematization
Parallel to the practical phenomenon, a research on this topic, the research then aimed to provide an
tradition has been formed and research interest has been overview of existing studies on incubators with a focus on
maintained, generating recent studies deriving themes and the application of the concept of sustainability.
constant academic publication (Hackett & Dilts, 2004; Considering the evolution of studies on business
Albort-Morant & Ribeiro-Soriano, 2016). The literature on incubators we research about the application of the term
business incubators has expanded, as shown by literature "sustainability". This research thus conducts a literature
reviews that systematized research in incubation, currently review and mapping of this knowledge. This review aims
focusing on accelerators, startups, and technology base to clarify and identify the differences in the application of
(Eveleens et al., 2017; Hausberg & Korreck, 2020). In the term sustainability in studies on business incubators.
general, incubators continue to provide services to support
The article is structured as follows: Introduction,
business development, in its initial stages, through diverse
section 1, presents the problem, gaps in previous work,
services and access to knowledge (Deyanova et al., 2022).
contribution, and objective of the article. Section 2 on the
Hackett and Dilts (2004), almost twenty years ago,
method describes the investigation procedures and
signaled that much attention had been paid to the facilities
research development stages. In Results and Discussion,
of incubators and little attention was focused on incubated
Section 3, presents the results of the literature review and
companies, innovations they disseminated and incubation
discussion. In the conclusion, section 4, presents final
results. Since then, studies have addressed the performance
considerations of the main points, applications,
of incubators, effectiveness (Theodorakopoulos et al.,
advantages, and limitations of the article.
2014) and incubation impacts (Albort-Morant & Ribeiro-
Soriano, 2016).
Previous studies highlight the gap in explanation of the II. METHOD
link between incubators and sustainable development The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews
(Hernández & Carrà 2016). And even if an increase in the and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) standards were followed in
number of studies on innovation and technology focused the conduct of this systematic review (Page et al., 2021).
on sustainability is observed (Markard et al., 2012), the Additionally, the seven-step method described in Booth
role of technological innovation in the Sustainable (2016) and Freitas et al. (2022) were utilized, which
Development Goals (SDGs) is still considered unexplored consists of seven steps: planning, defining the scope,
and a research gap (Castro et al., 2021). Despite this, searching the published research, assessing the evidence
studies have specialized in the importance of technology to base, synthesizing, analyzing, and writing. To provide an
address the SDGs (Secundo et al., 2020). In the growing overview and synthesis based on the scientific articles
field of studies on incubators, there are studies on available in the Scopus and Web of science (WOS)
sustainability-oriented incubators (Bank et al., 2017) or databases. This review is based on the use of bibliometric
their involvement in activities aimed at sustainable techniques to map the application of the concept of
development (Battering & Masurel, 2020). sustainability associated with business incubator e
There are studies on opportunities for creating green networked incubation.
jobs (Gliedt et al., 2018) and reflections on what 2.1 Planning
incubation services would be needed to develop eco-
In the context of the objective of the article, of the
opportunities (Battistoni & Barbero, 2019). The
literature on business incubators and the relationship
performance of incubators in relation to the environment
between incubators and sustainability is observed in the
or from the perspective of a more sustainable society can
studies through bibliometric analysis of the literature. This
be evaluated in terms of their environmental maturity
study aims to inform about the literature, using techniques
(Fonseca & Chiappetta Jabbour, 2012). There are

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of citation analysis, networking of authors' keywords, 2.4 Assessing the Evidence Base
mapping, and analysis of literature. In the study, the In the study, from the original articles and published
bibliometric method is applied analyzing selected studies, review articles, the guiding question is aimed at selecting
strictly in the production of original and review articles and electing studies on business incubators with a focus on
published and stored in a scientific knowledge database. the application of the concept of sustainability. After
Databases were consulted between December 2021 and filtering and exclusion procedures, forty-seven documents
March 2022, and data were extracted from Scopus and remained. Of these, were excluded twenty-one due to
Web of Science databases. Bibliographic analyzes and duplicity and due to thematic criteria after reading the
scientific mappings consider the number of publications abstracts. Remaining in twenty-six studies for analysis on
and citations, journals, and countries in the selected the question raised, as shown in Fig. 1. The assessment
studies. The most influential authors are identified based step applied inclusion and exclusion criteria filters to
on citations and the most cited articles. After defining the reduce the number of related articles identified during the
initial research intention and the topic to be addressed, search step. By combining the following exclusion criteria,
exploratory searches were conducted in the databases for we to limit the number of documents identified: E1:
original and review articles to verify the existence of a Exclude articles that did not include the terms
research gap to be explored. “sustainability”, “Sustainable Development”. And E2:
2.2 Defining the Scope Exclude articles that did not contain the terms "incubator",
"incubation".
Defining the scope relates to research questions. To
investigate the research gap, two pertinent research 2.5 Synthesizing and Analyzing
questions were formulated for this review, namely: Q1: Based on the identified works and abstracts, studies on
How is the concept of sustainability applied in research on incubators were included and those that did not have
business incubators? And Q2: What are the main thematic relevance or did not meet the criterion of the
characteristics of the use of the notion of sustainability and guiding question were excluded. After this selection and
sustainable development in business incubators? eligibility step, reading the abstracts and documents, they
2.3 Literature Search were selected for analysis in the Vosviewer software.

To this end, steps were defined to be followed. In the


initial search, the following search descriptors were used:
“business incubator”, “incubation”, “sustainability”, these
terms, to be found in the article title, abstract or keywords.
The descriptors used were "business incubator" and
"business incubation". The search string was as follows:
“(title ("business incubator") OR title ("business
incubation") OR key ("business incubator") OR key
("business incubation"))". Considering the variations
“sustainability” and “sustainable”. Several combinations of
these descriptors with logical operators were evaluated in
the search for review articles and originals.
As a search step 1, we used an initial String, and aimed
at searching for studies and most influential works. In Fig. 1: flow diagram for inclusion of articles.
search stage using the String we searched for studies
focusing on the guiding question of the research, with the III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
relationship between business incubators and the term
In the literature on business incubators, studies on the
sustainability. The selection was finalized in April 2022.
performance of incubators, the impact of support and the
The result of the search is shown in Table 1.
effects of incubation on the growth of incubated ventures
Table.1: Search results in the databases are traditional. The theme of performance brings the
Search step 1: String WOS Scopus concept of sustainability closer, associating it with the
sustained growth of the incubator or the supported
((business incubator AND sustainab* 68 100
business. However, there is no review on this approach
development))
and application of the concept in studies on incubators, nor
on incubators linked to sustainable development

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specifically. In this context, there is no clear distinction on of 821.7 citations per year in the period between 2012 and
the application of the term sustainability in these studies, 2021.
which suggests an opportunity for review and
systematization. In this sense, Table 2 shows the reviews
produced on business incubators.
Table.2: Previous literature reviews published on business
incubators
Author (Year) Title Times
cited
Hackett and Dilts A Systematic Review of 462
(2004) Business Incubation
Research Fig. 2: business incubators, number of original and review
articles published per year
Albort-Morant A bibliometric analysis of 139
and Ribeiro- international impact of
Soriano (2016) business incubators
Hausberg and Business incubators and 81
Korreck (2020) accelerators: a co-citation
analysis-based, systematic
literature review
Theodorakopoulos What matters in business 75
et al. (2014) incubation? A literature
review and a suggestion for
situated theorizing
Eveleens et al. How network-based 64
(2017) incubation helps start-up Fig. 3: business incubators, number of citations of these
performance: a systematic documents per year
review against the
background of management
With entrepreneurship being central to economic
theories
growth in most developed economies, incubators serve as
McAdam et al. Business Processes and 45 catalysts for the formation and development of business
(2006) Networks in University clusters, according to Carayannis and Von Zedtwitz
Incubators: A Review and (2005). Technological incubators, for example, have been
Research Agendas used by governments as an effective strategy to facilitate
Deyanova et al. Hatching start-ups for 1 technological innovation (Sun & Cheng 2021). In addition,
(2022) sustainable growth: a incubators are also seen as mechanisms that facilitate
bibliometric review on social inclusion and inclusive growth, according to
business incubators Baskaran and Chandran (2019). However, there is almost
no attention to the engagement of incubators in activities
aimed at sustainable development, even though a
As shown, previous reviews of the literature on significant proportion of European incubators engage in
business incubators have not yet addressed sustainability. activities for sustainable development, according to
Business incubators have great practical relevance Battering and Masurel (2020). And few studies have
(Deyanova et al. 2022) and there are no signs that other focused on sustainable incubators or those aimed at
models are replacing them to support entrepreneurship. supporting sustainable development through new
Incubators remain an effective mechanism to support small companies (Bank et al., 2017).
business development (Mcadam & Marlow 2008). In the
According to Hernandez and Carrá (2016), there is a
recent period, shown in Fig. 2 and Fig. 3, the number of
gap in theoretical explanation for understanding incubators
original and review articles published and the citations in
linked to sustainable development. There is even a lack of
the last 10 years is observed. The average publication per
proposals to assess the “greening” of incubators or even
year was forty articles. And these articles had an average

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discussions about incubators and the environment resources, competences, physical capacity, involvement in
(Fonseca & Chiappetta Jabbour 2012). Incubators as green supply chains, corporate culture favorable to eco-
innovation intermediaries could be employed for green innovation, technology, market attraction and internal
economic development” and creating a window of financial resources, according to research by Kiefer et al.
opportunity to create “green jobs” (Gliedt et al., 2018). (2019).
Sustainability and growth, suited to sustainable In a systematic review work on innovation
transitions and the circular economy, seem to have been intermediaries in transitions to sustainability, Gliedt et al.
neglected by traditional entrepreneurs, according to (2018) found studies on innovation intermediaries as
Millette et al. (2020). However, science, technology and incubators and accelerators with a focus on sustainability.
innovation have been seen to achieve sustainable These intermediaries play the role of providing
development goals (SDGs) through start-ups (Surana et information, services, and mediation, connecting activities
al., 2020). The so-called sustainable development start-ups and institutions by disseminating new technologies and
(SDSs) are high-risk ventures for investment, which, with practices (Gliedt et al., 2018). In the field of research on
a network of financial support, investments, and business incubators, there are research topics and interests
knowledge, could reduce these restrictions, according to related to types of incubators. The specializations in the
Van Rijnsoever (2022). practice of incubation and developed through studies
There is an emerging field of research called encompass the theme of sustainability, which, although it
“Sustainable Entrepreneurial Ecosystems”, aiming at the is explored, has not had its development reviewed or
nexus between entrepreneurship and sustainability, in structured. If this complex and dispersed field of studies
which the explicit link with the SDGs appears as the also has a high production of academic publications
current stage of evolution of this field, according to (Deyanova et al., 2022), it is necessary to seek to
Volkmann et al. (2021). Bajwa et al. (2021) identifies the consolidate the themes and research paths. To structure the
concept of sustainability with alignment with sustainable knowledge of the studies carried out and available
development and reports that despite the private sector approaches for future research and solutions to current and
having a proactive stance towards the SDGs, the initiatives future problems.
have not gained scale. The authors explore the concept of The analysis data presented in this section serve to
thematic incubation for corporate sustainability to meet establish the subject and the evolution of both the context
global development agendas through innovation, products, related to sustainability and the evolution of the incubators
and services. The Sustainable Development Goals involve and the connection between the themes identified. From
ending poverty, protecting the planet, and improving the the literature it is also possible to identify main ideas under
lives of people everywhere. There are seventeen goals that discussion. We propose an initial contextualization also of
were adopted by all UN Member States in 2015, as part of a bibliometric nature to situate the results on incubators
the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, in which a and sustainability.
15-year plan was established for achieving the goals (UN). 3.1 Sustainability and incubators
The circular economy concept, in turn, would seek to Thus, we raise the issue of sustainability from the
integrate economic growth and sustainability. Aiming to descriptor “Sustainability” in the Scopus database. The
extend the useful life of resources and minimize waste descriptor "Sustainability" in the title in combination with
through reuse, recycling, repairs, and remanufacturing. In one of the keywords "Sustainable Development",
this cycle proposed by the circular economy, four "Sustainability", "Sustainable Development Goals",
components would be necessary for the concept: 1) "Sustainable Development Goal”, "SDGs”, "Sustainable
resource recirculation, demand minimization and waste Development Goals (SDGs)”, extracting only documents
value recovery, 2) a multilevel approach, 3) its indication from the “Business" area, 3,800 documents were found.
as a means for sustainable development, and 4) a close The figures below show the Number of articles published
relationship with the form of innovation in society. (Prieto- per year (Fig.4), main journals (Fig.5), authors (Fig.6) and
Sandoval et al., 2018). countries of origin (Fig.7), for the descriptor
Innovation studies have discussed ways and policies to "Sustainability" (in title) combined with the keyword
deal with climate change and accelerate the transition to Sustainable Development Goals. Here, strictly considering
sustainability (Fagerberg, 2018). Eco-innovations, one of documents such as original and review articles, from 2015
these forms, are determined by drivers and barriers that to 2021. On average, 1,841 articles were published per
affect companies that decide to innovate with a focus on year. Adding a total of 12,891 documents in 7 years (2015-
sustainable transition (Kiefer et al., 2019). The drivers are 2021). The year 2015 was the starting point for the SDGs.

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incubators are located is related to economic, social and


environmental aspects of each country and region, the
institutions, the business culture, innovation policies and
their own regulations wich can represent barriers or
incentives for the incubation of companies aimed at
sustainability. The Table 6 shows the distribution of
selected studies by country of origin.

Fig. 4: Sustainability combined with Sustainable


Development Goals; articles published per year

Fig. 7: Sustainability combined with Sustainable


Development Goals, countries of origin

Table.3: Articles selected by number of documents


published by country and number of citations obtained
Country Documents Citations
Fig. 5: Sustainability combined with Sustainable 1. United States 6 30
Development Goals, main journals
2. Sweden 4 28
3. Brazil 2 16
4. Germany 2 19
5. India 2 14
6. Italy 1 18
7. Netherlands 1 22
8. Australia 1 11
9. United
1 75
Kingdom
10. China 1 28
Fig. 6: Sustainability combined with Sustainable
Development Goals, authors
In this sense, with recent studies conducted and a field
growing, creates a need for new literature reviews and
The growth of research on this topic and publications updates. Specifically, to the issue of sustainability, climate
already reflects the relevance of this topic. On the other change, SDG, and Circular Economy, these are emerging
hand, research on business incubators also has an themes in relation to the future. Table 4 shows selected
evolution. By offering services, knowledge and access to studies about these issues, the number of citations obtained
networks to entrepreneurs, business incubators can help to and year of publication. Table 5 shows the main journals.
develop new businesses, products and services intensive in
scientific and technological knowledge that improve
environmental conditions. What happens from the business
incubation experience of each country where the

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Table.4: Table caption above the table 2020 effective tools for driving
Year Document Title Cited circular economy.

Fonseca and Assessment of business 26 Surana et al., Strengthening science, 16


Jabbour, 2012 incubators' green 2020 technology, and innovation-
performance: A framework based incubators to help
and its application to Brazilian achieve Sustainable
cases. Development Goals: Lessons
from India.
Fonseca, 2015 Business incubators as vectors 0
to the promotion of clean Bajwa et al., Co-Producing Knowledge 1
technologies in small firms: 2021 Innovation through Thematic
Limits and possibilities Incubators for Disaster Risk
Reduction and Sustainable
Bank and Tenant recruitment and 13 Development in India.
Kanda, 2016 support processes in
sustainability-profiled Hull et al., Challenges and opportunities 9
business incubators. 2021 in building circular-economy
incubators: Stakeholder
Hernández and A conceptual approach for 12 perspectives in Trinidad and
Carrà, 2016 business incubator Tobago.
interdependencies and
sustainable development. Deyanova et Hatching start-ups for 0
al., 2022 sustainable growth: a
Bank et al., Sustainability-profiled 25 bibliometric review on
2017 incubators and securing the business incubators.
inflow of tenants–The case of
Green Garage Berlin. Van Rijnsoever, Intermediaries for the greater 1
2022 good: How entrepreneurial
Gliedt et al., Innovation intermediaries 77 support organizations can
2018 accelerating environmental embed constrained sustainable
sustainability transitions. development startups in
Lamine et al., Technology business 46 entrepreneurial ecosystems
2018 incubation mechanisms and
sustainable regional
development. Table.5: The main Journals cited by the selected articles

Baskaran et al., Inclusive entrepreneurship, 7 Reference Journals in selected studies Documents


2019 innovation and sustainable Journal Of Cleaner Production 77
growth: Role of business Technological Forecasting and Social 15
incubators, academia and Change
social enterprises in Asia.
Journal Of Technology Transfer 35
Battistoni and Systemic Incubator for Local 3
Barbero, 2019 Eco Entrepreneurship to Technovation 30
Favour a Sustainable Local Research Policy 26
Development: Guidelines Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice 14
Definition.
Journal Of Business Venturing 14
Gonsalves and Business incubators and green 2
Rogerson, 2019 technology: The Gauteng Journal Of Industrial Ecology 14
Climate innovation Centre, Small Business Economics 13
South Africa
Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice 12
Klofsten et al., Incubator specialization and 12
2020 size: Divergent paths towards
operational scale These eleven main reference sources are sources for
literature on the topic and dissemination. In this context, 5
Millette et al., Business incubators as 19 main high-impact journals also stand out: Journal Of

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Cleaner Production (4 selected studies; 77 references); The second emphasis (Table 67 refers to the treatment
Technological Forecasting And Social Change (2 selected of the external aspect of sustainability, in the sense of
studies; 15 references); Journal Of Technology Transfer (1 sustainable development linking social, economic, and
study and 35 references); Research Policy (1 study environmental issues. In this other approach and
selected; 26 references); and, Technovation (1 selected application of the notion of sustainability is the
studies; 30 references). The distribution of the selected approximation of what the sustainable transition proposes.
studies by the main countries that produced them, has as In this emphasis also uses terms such as eco-
main: the United States, Sweden, Brazil, Germany, and entrepreneurship, eco-innovation, sustainable products,
India. green performance, green Jobs, and sustainability-oriented
In the selected literature, we found differences in the incubators, in this emphasis.
application of the notion of sustainability that allow the Table.7: Emphasis from the selected articles: Sustainable
concept linked to the global environmental issue and to a Development
sustainability of the incubator as an organization, of the Author (YEAR) Emphasis 2 Sustainable
incubated and that extends to business and sustainable or Development
self-sustainable entrepreneurship. In this regard, a first
analysis made it possible to distinguish two basic Bajwa, et al. (2021). SDG
groupings to emphasize the application of sustainability. Surana, et al. (2020)
The first emphasize (Table 6) linked to the effectiveness Millette et al. (2020) Circular economy
and sustainability in the sense of survival of the incubator-
business. And the second emphasize refers to the treatment Gliedt, et al. (2018) Sustainability transitions;
of the aspect of social, economic, and environmental green economic
sustainability approaching SDG, circular economy, and development
green economy. Lopolito, et al. (2022) Sustainability transitions
Table.6: Emphasis from the selected articles: Self- Battistoni & Barbero Eco-entrepreneurship, eco-
Sustainable incubator and the Economic Growth (2019) innovation opportunities;
Author (YEAR) Emphasis 1 Self-Sustainable environmental sustainability

Ahmed, et al. (2022) Sustainable growth of Klofsten, et al. (2020) Sustainability;


entrepreneurship sustainability-oriented
incubators
Franco, et al.(2021) Business sustainability;
Economic growth Yamamoto & dos Reis Economic and
Coutinho (2019) environmental sustainability
Deyanova, et al. (2022) Sustainable growth
Van Rijnsoever (2022) Sustainable Development
Gao & Hu (2017) Self-sustaining incubator Start-ups
Sun & Cheng (2021) Incubator efficiency; Battering & Masurel Sustainable development;
sustainable economic growth (2020) Sustainable business
McAdam & Marlow Incubator sustainability incubators
(2008) Sustainability of incubators Bank, et al. (2017) Sustainability-oriented
Ssekiziyivu & incubator
Banyenzaki, (2021)
Fonseca & Chiappetta Green performance of
Carayannis & von Sustainable economic growth Jabbour (2012) incubators
Zedtwitz (2005)
Blankenship et al. (2009) Sustainable development
Baskaram, et al. (2019) Sustainable growth Strategic (SSD); sustainable
Romein & Trip (2017) Cluster sustainable products
development Ho &Yoon (2022) Social Innovation
Hernández & Carrà Sustainable development
(2016)
In an analysis of the occurrence of the keywords in the
Almeida, et al. (2011) Sustainability selected documents, we visualized the links in the most
used keywords and the formation of networks and density

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clusters. These links allow visualizing, knowing, and knowing the panorama of existing studies on incubators
suggesting the formation of clusters as sub-themes as a set with a focus on the application of the concept of
of ideas that have been shaping these studies. The Fig. 8 sustainability. More in-depth reviews can identify reasons
shows the links between keywords. for the differences in the application of the term
sustainability in studies and seek practical cases on
sustainable incubators with a sustainability profile (Bank
et al., 2017).
In seeking to answer the research question on how the
concept of sustainability is applied in research on business
incubators, we visualize characteristics of the use of the
notion of sustainability in business incubators. In which
we highlight as main points the Emphasis 1 Self-
Sustainable and Emphasis 2 Sustainable Development and
identified keywords. This study aims to inform the public
about the literature through the techniques of citation
analysis, network of authors' keywords and literature
analysis, based on original articles and review in Scopus
Fig. 8: Network visualization of keywords in selected and Web of Science databases.
articles
It can be established that the topic is in initial evolution
both in the context of sustainability and in the connection
The Fig. 9 shows clusters of Density map by co- with incubators (Battering & Masurel, 2020). From the
occurrence of the most used words in the selected articles. literature, it was possible to identify the main ideas and a
This serves to illustrate domains that relates incubators and bibliographic contextualization to situate those interested
the application of the concept of sustainability. in the relationship between incubators, sustainability and
sustainable development (Hernández & Carrà 2016).
Thus, the results of the review and analysis
demonstrate that studies on incubators can advance
theoretically and empirically in the field of
entrepreneurship for sustainability, Eco-entrepreneurship,
eco-innovation opportunities, Sustainability transitions;
green economic development (Battistoni & Barbero, 2019;
Gliedt, et al., 2018). Based on the literature, it is possible
to identify pioneering studies in the area in relation to the
theme that point to sustainable development, green
performance of incubators and Sustainable economic
growth (Fonseca & Chiappetta Jabbour, 2012;
Blankenship, et al., 2009; Carayannis & Von Zedtwitz,
Fig. 9: Density map by co-occurrence of the most used 2005). This demands new contributions and studies.
words in the selected articles
Specifically, it is possible to integrate the themes of
incubation for sustainability as a necessary strategic action
For a discussion of these points about the keywords, that can collaborate to bring together agents interested in
Emphasis 1 (Self-Sustainable) and Emphasis 2 the development of eco-innovations and in the practical
(Sustainable Development) on the question of the perspective of the circular economy (Millette et al., 2020).
application of the concept of sustainability in studies on This study, as presented, helped to identify new terms
business incubators, we can demonstrate a relationship related to sustainability such as the SDGs, eco-innovations
between these elements, still little analyzed in in-depth and circular economy that may represent trends and areas
studies and literature reviews, which can contribute to of interest in the topic. And it indicates that there may be
clarifying the vision of the field of business incubation new research gaps that can be explored by future studies,
regarding the involvement with sustainability issues. in a research continuity.
Thus, a sample of these works contributes to This review identifies uses and links between the topic
researchers and practitioners who have the objective of of business incubators and the concept of sustainability,

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Marques et al. International Journal of Advanced Engineering Research and Science, 9(9)-2022

observing differences in the application of the term that New studies can analyze the relationship between
can be an initial difficulty. although the results of the authors and the most influential references as indicative of
review and analysis show that sustainable development has this initial basis on the subject. The findings of the review
had new contributions that can bring together agents highlight that current knowledge is still being expanded
interested in entrepreneurship linked to eco-innovations and the characteristics of the phenomenon of incubators in
and in the circular economy perspective, for example. relation to the theme of sustainability still need to be
It appears that in the different uses of the term deepened and its expansion can strengthen the role of
sustainability, a promising line of work may be the incubators in sustainable development.
identification of new terms linked to sustainability such as
the SDGs, eco-innovations and circular economy that may ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
represent trends and areas of interest in the incubator
The authors would like to thank for financial support
theme. This may indicate new research gaps to be explored
from the Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado da
by other studies.
Bahia (FAPESB), Term of Grant No. BOL0552/2019,
When considering the limits of the results and the REQUEST No. 2116/2019.
approach used, it can be considered that the evolution of
research on the subject still demands more precise
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