University Business Incubation: Opportunities in Less Favoured Regions

Abstract

Present paper examines university business incubation (UBI) as an economic development tool that can enhance the relationship between universities and the local business sphere. The problem of setting up UBIs have gained attention in Hungary recently but the foreign best practices almost always derive from highly developed regions which makes them difficult to adapt.

This study first reviews the peculiarities of university-related incubation with special emphasis on the university-related services and the spin-off process. The second part shows the results of an empirical analysis carried out in the Szeged sub-region (Hungary) that examines the attitudes of local small enterprises towards university-related incubation. The third part points out the factors which are necessary to consider in our opinion when planning a UBI project in a less favoured region.