Incubators are organisations or structures that usually offer five types of services in order to accelerate start-up development: access to physical resources, administrative services, access to financial resources, assistance with start-up procedures and access to networks. The aim of the present paper is to investigate the mediating role of the incubator. More specifically, it examines how the incubator’s mediation is related to incubator firms’ development of broader business networks. The primary data comprised 34 face-to-face interviews with 19 respondents from an incubator and its incubator firms and with other actors with which the incubator had a relationship. The paper offers three conclusions concerning how the network horizon influences the incubator’s capacity to mediate relationships, the necessity for incubator firms to be proactive in order to utilise the mediation activities of the incubator and the influence of public-funding agencies in the development of incubator firms, which is based on their role as third actors in connected business relationships.

Introduction

The importance of start-up firms for innovation and economic growth is well established in the academic literature (Aaboen, La Rocca, Lind, Perna, & Shih, 2017; Oakey, Groen, Cook, & Van Der Sijde, 2013). As such, they have received extensive support from policymakers, regional governments and universities (Storey & Tether, 1998). Technology-based start-up firms are of particular interest because academics, investors and policymakers regard them as having strong potential to contribute to innovation and economic growth (Autio, 1997). However, the high failure rate of these firms is an issue of concern (Aaboen, Laage-Hellman, Lind, Öberg, & Shih, 2016). Hence, there are a number of intermediary organisations that seek to assist start-ups. Among these actors, incubators are considered to play a particularly important role (Bruneel, Ratinho, Clarysse, & Groen, 2012). Incubators accommodate start-up firms and help them manage their growth. Start-ups locate in incubators primarily to find support for their entrepreneurial endeavours, build on resource endowments and gain legitimacy (McAdam & McAdam, 2008), whereby the mobilization of resources can take place both directly and indirectly (Suk & Mooweon, 2006). Against this background, Carayannis and Von Zedtwitz (2005) define incubators as organisations or structures that usually offer five types of services: access to physical resources, administrative services, access to financial resources, assistance with start-up procedures and access to networks. Recently, the incubator’s provision of interorganisational network relationships and its role as a mediator (Cantú, ۲۰۱۷; Mian, Lamine, & Fayolle, 2016) have received increased attention from scholars. This research has situated the function of the incubator in a broader context.