A Conceptual Approach for Business Incubator Interdependencies and Sustainable Development

Sustainable development is an important dimension for business incubators to improve tenant-businesses in the coffee value chain. This study focuses on business incubators addressing social and economic dimensions of sustainability in developing countries. Business incubators are perceived as important mechanisms for sustainable development as they involve relevant stakeholders and activities to interact each other. Prior research highlights the gap of theoretical explanation to understand business incubators linked to sustainable development. The purpose of this study is to provide a conceptual approach based on resource dependence theory to better understand strategies in interdependencies to address power imbalance issues of business incubators in developing countries. Strategies such as integration and coordination should be implemented in the incubator management to increase mutual dependencies and improve relationships to secure resources, thereby, providing quality services for tenants. Relationships with relevant partner organizations such as universities, business centers, and public research organizations represent opportunities for business incubators in boosting sustainable business development.