Embedding nascent entrepreneurs in incubators: Examining conflicts in technology venture creation

Abstract

Technology Business Incubator (TBI), an entrepreneurial support organization (ESO), provides a safe harbor for startups by improving their survival rates. Recent ESO research highlights the collaborative role of entrepreneurs and incubator management in constituting business incubation as a dynamic entrepreneurial context. However, the conflicts that naturally emerge during this co-creation process remain underexplored. This study addresses this gap by examining how conflicts arise as entrepreneurs and incubator management collectively construct an incubation context while engaging in new venture creation. We adopt an interpretive, qualitative approach employing thematic analysis of the primary data collected through a year-long ethnographic inquiry at a TBI. We examine the case of a nascent entrepreneur housed in a TBI operating in a large technology-focused academic institution in India and leverage the institutional logics literature as the theoretical anchor. The study reveals that the conflict between an incubator and a nascent entrepreneur arises due to (1) an entrepreneur's non-identification with institutional norms, which encapsulates role conflict and incompatibility with the incubator's values and prescriptions, and (2) compartmentalized upholding of the institutional practices as a result of partial adherence to incubator's process and entrepreneur's opportunistic behavior. It contributes to business incubator literature by theorizing the conflicts between an entrepreneur and incubator management during co-creation of an incubation context. We also present a framework for entrepreneurial embeddedness in the social context of a TBI and inform discussion about the dynamic process of embeddedness in an institutional context. Finally, we articulate best practices or organizational mechanisms that incubators can deploy to reduce or alleviate tensions between themselves and incubated entrepreneurs more constructively.