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This study aims to explore how the business incubation industry (BII) is dealing with the emerging challenges posed by the on-going transition toward an environmentally sustainable economy, from a business network perspective. Despite scholars and policymakers agreeing to emphasize the crucial role of the BII as a support sector for sustainability-driven new business development, it still needs to be determined how incubation organizations are dealing with the emerging priorities of sustainability.

The study relies on a qualitative interpretivist approach based on the data collected from 17 in-depth interviews with key informants from the BII of Emilia Romagna region, Italy. An industrial marketing and purchasing (IMP) analytical approach has been adopted to explore sustainability-driven changes in Incubation network contexts and dynamics.

This study shows that BII is increasingly exposed to the emergence of sustainability as a driving force in the development of new ventures. Main finding concerns the classification of incubation organizations in two macro groups, namely, local scouts and trendy scouts, according to their business incubation strategy and their approach to sustainability.

This study contributes to the IMP literature on the topic of sustainability by providing a filtered view through the eyes of incubators that are aware of the opportunities and obstacles to the development of new sustainable business models, resources and processes. Furthermore, this study lays the groundwork for analyzing the incubator ecosystem from an industrial perspective, highlighting the network of relationships used to support start-ups in their development.