For any start-up, adhering to an entrepreneurial ecosystem is an engine for business innovation. The specific objectives of this paper are to address themes and characteristics (also comparing organizational structures and services provided in different national contexts: Italy vs. Romania) in terms of selection mechanisms adopted by business incubators, to analyse and deepen the contribution that incubators make to new business initiatives. From a methodological point of view, the comparative analysis of the incubator activities in Italy and Romania was performed by collecting relevant information outlining selection mechanisms that provide a qualitative magnitude to the start-ups’ selection criteria. Findings reflect different perspectives regarding the approach of selection mechanisms in these two European countries. Furthermore, Romanian start-ups could learn practices from the Italian start-up ecosystem, enabling them to better perform in the future
