Guidelines for developing and managing digital business incubators: a stakeholders’ perspective

Research on business incubators has been advocating their impacts in promoting industry innovation, economic growth, fostering entrepreneurship, and social development. However, the literature gap concerning business incubator models remains, among them how to operationalize digital ones, and the knowledge about management practices informed by primary incubators’ stakeholders is also scant. Thus, this study aims to convey the fourth phase of a research project following a design science research methodology. It relied on the participation of 39 incubator managers and startup founders in focus groups and interview sessions to co-design a future digital incubation program. It informs a set of practical and knowledgeable guidelines for developing, running, and managing digital business incubators, organized on an eight-dimension proposed framework to assist academics and organization professionals interested in creating and operationalizing similar incubation programs.