Investigating and classifying clients' satisfaction with business incubator services

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to show that a business incubation/incubator program is an enterprise development strategy, aimed at accelerating the process of formation, development, survivability and growth of new enterprises by providing those new enterprises (clients) with a wide range of business assistance including physical facilities, business counselling and networking. This paper presents results of a research conducted to investigate the level of satisfaction/dissatisfaction of the clients with the provision of those assistance services.

Design/methodology/approach

In this paper the level of clients' satisfaction/dissatisfaction with a service is calculated using a proposed framework in terms of the mean difference between the importance of the service and the effectiveness of incubator management in providing the respective service as perceived by the clients.

Findings

The results in this paper indicate that clients were generally more satisfied with facility related services than the counselling and business networking assistances services. However, there are significant differences between the perceived importance attached to a number of facility related services and the effectiveness of those services, suggesting a variation of the level of clients' satisfaction.

Originality/value

These findings have important implications for the management of business incubation programs, which are highlighted in this paper.

Citation

Abduh, M., D'Souza, C., Quazi, A. and Burley, H.T. (2007), "Investigating and classifying clients' satisfaction with business incubator services", Managing Service Quality: An International Journal, Vol. 17 No. 1, pp. 74-91. https://doi.org/10.1108/09604520710720683