Business Incubation Strategy of High-Tech Venture Firms in a Science Park - Technopolis: Best Practices for Science and Technology Cities - page 143

2.2 Critical Success Factors for Business Incubation
of High-Tech Venture Firms
According to Fache ( 1992 ), the success of the innovation process in science parks
is basically a cultural one. Among all identifiable factors of success (good plan-
ning, management, location, link with universities, aggressive marketing, inter-
national networks, and a realistic financial approach), he indicated that the cultural
factor is probably the least considered because it is the most difficult to measure
and to implement; it has to do with human attitudes, management of time, and
social and cultural life. Business-oriented culture will create conditions for the rise
of a daring entrepreneurial spirit. Starting a venture business requires a daring
spirit and a strong character capable of implementing ideas.
Since use of the concept of entrepreneurship, there has been no precise defi-
nition of the word. Managers often describe entrepreneurs as being innovative,
flexible, dynamic, risk taking, creative, and growth oriented. The popular press, on
the other hand, often associates entrepreneurship with starting and operating new
ventures (Feeser 1987 ). In the present context, this describes the process of
actually putting an innovation into the marketplace; the innovator assumes the
risks inherent in the process (Gibson 1992). The critical point in creating venture
business is the interaction of knowledge with a recognized social need or want.
Entrepreneurship bridges the gap between science and the marketplaces. Silicon
Valley is a good example of entrepreneurship.
According to Larsen and Rogers ( 1988 ), key factors in Silicon Valley are the
availability of technical expertise, infrastructure, venture, job mobility, informa-
tion-exchange networks, and learning entrepreneurial fever from local role models.
Among the factors, the major ones to stimulate entrepreneurship for hatching
venture business are venture capital and other infrastructure. A venture capital firm
serves as an intermediary between investors looking for high returns for their
money and entrepreneurs in search of needed capital for their start-ups. 2
A new firm is also dependent on a lot of infrastructure including universities,
research institutes, governments, non-profit organizations, suppliers, financiers,
markets, and others. Venture businesses are more likely to occur, and more likely to
succeed, where the necessary infrastructure exists. There are also important roles
for local government and universities to play in their relationships with the business
incubators (BIs). They should build more BIs in response to their demand and
consider building more of these facilities into the economic development strategies
for effectuating their comprehensive plans. Thought should be given to linking
incubators with other local development efforts in a complementary manner, in
order to achieve an economic development synergy. Care should be taken to avoid
the ''zero sum game'' of hatching new venture businesses that merely compete with
and ultimately displace existing firms (Oh and Kang 1997 ) (Fig. 1 ).
2 The literature on venture capital suggests that many venture capital firms like to be in close
proximity to the entrepreneurs with whom they work (Lay Gibson 1992, pp. 39-41).