THE WAY FORWARD FOR BUSINESS INCUBATION PROCESS IN ICT INCUBATORS IN MALAYSIA

The development of ICT SMEs has been the top priority for Malaysia, in trying to achieve its aspirations to become a fully developed nation by the year 2020. The government has launched several initiatives to expedite the launch and growth of ICT SMEs including the establishing science parks, technology parks, and business incubators. This paper examines the critical components that are essential in a business incubation ecosystem. Six ICT incubator managers in Malaysia were interviewed and findings from the interviews revealed that although process of business incubation is evident in all incubators, there is a lack in consistency and implementation. This paper provides a managerial perspective of business incubation process in ICT incubators and the way forward for these incubators to become world-class ICT incubator

An empirical analysis into the underlying components impacting upon business incubation performance of Malaysian ICT incubators

This thesis examines the influence of Selection Performance, Monitoring and Business Assistance Intensity, Resource Allocation, and Professional Management Services on business incubation performance. This study extends current research by investigating an additional construct which examines targeted areas of professional management services including marketing and promotion, strategic management, financial management, and staff and personnel management. The literature suggests that limited academic research on incubation development in Malaysia has been undertaken and information regarding business incubation in Malaysia is primarily descriptive providing a limited view of the incubation system. The need for an investigation of the incubation system’s impact, effectiveness, and sustainability has been revealed in the recently announced Tenth Malaysia Plan 2011-2015. The present thesis adopts a mixed-methods approach, incorporating quantitative and qualitative studies. A total of 118 incubatees from all 15 ICT incubators in Malaysia participated in the quantitative study. Items for the questionnaire were derived from a previously conducted study and prior incubation research. A framework consisting of four independent variables and one dependent variable with four possible outcomes of incubatee performance was developed. An iterative procedure was utilised, consisting of exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and multinomial logistic regression (MLR). The latter statistical technique enabled the researcher to test relationships between the underlying components extracted from the EFA and business incubation performance. Findings reveal that Selection Performance, Monitoring and Business Assistance Intensity, Resource Allocation, and Professional Management Services are all statistically significant in predicting business incubation performance with significance level all below the .05 level. The strongest predictor came from the interaction of all four constructs. Further analysis elaborates the prediction capabilities of each extracted component from the EFA on specific categories of business incubation performance. The qualitative study involves case studies developed from interviews with six ICT incubator managers guided by an interview protocol. Two approaches in presenting the qualitative data were adopted: within-case analysis and cross-case analysis. The within-case analysis presents a thorough review of each ICT incubator, while the purpose of the cross-case analysis is to derive conclusions from a set of cases. The significant influence of Selection Performance in enhancing business incubation performance is a key finding of this thesis. ICT incubators would do well to note the nature of the results in regard to Monitoring and Business Assistance Intensity where providing incubatees with comprehensive business assistance is warranted. Additionally, ICT incubators need to be at par with benchmarked incubation practices that aid in the sophistication of technology, e.g. technology labs and networking with technology experts. Incubatees’ performance may improve if appropriate resources were made available and easily accessible. The significance of targeted Professional Management Services should be taken into account as results show that incubatees value the services yet the level of implementation of the services generally tended to be poor. Findings from this study provide a clearer understanding of the ICT incubation practices in Malaysia and offer several implications for research, policymakers, and practitioners

A Comparison of Cluster Members and Non Cluster Members in Transition Economies: The Case of Bulgaria, Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) and Serbia

This research aims to determine the impact of the cluster approach on the competitiveness of cluster members in clusters in transition countries. The project focuses on cases in Bulgaria, Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) and Serbia. The study provides a critical review of the cluster literature, which then leads to data analysis, deriving conclusions and providing recommendations based on the findings from the research. Aiming at building on strengths and compensating for weaknesses of both approaches, the mixed method research, using both quantitative and qualitative research methodologies was used, based on deductive research approach. In addition to descriptive statistics, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), post hoc analysis, factor analysis and regression analysis were used as main statistical tools for answering the research questions. The main findings are that cluster phenomenon in selected countries in South East Europe is very different from the one in industrialized countries and there is no statistical evidence that clusters contribute to improving the competitiveness of the cluster members. On the other hand the companies which are not involved in cluster initiatives, do not see any disadvantage as a result of “being out of the game”. Furthermore, cluster members in the selected countries have received only limited additional benefits which are not accessible to the non-members. The main benefit that cluster members in selected countries receive is access to information, business partners and business supporting organisations, but those benefits have not resulted in an increase of their competitiveness. One of the key contributions of this research is that for the first time it provides evidence about the influence of clusters on competitiveness of the cluster members in transition economies in the South East Europe. There is also no other study in this part of Europe that compares the business performance of cluster members to non-members