Exploring the linkage between business incubation and entrepreneurship: understanding trends, themes and future research agenda

• Published in: LBS journal of management & research 2024-07, Vol.22 (1), p.66-92
• Main Authors: Dhiman, Vaishali, Arora, Manpreet
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Bibliographic coupling; Bibliometric analysis; Bibliometrics; Business incubation; Business incubators; Entrepreneurs; Entrepreneurship; Hirsch index; Incubator; Innovation; Innovations; Productivity; Startups; Trends
• ISSN: 0972-8031; 0974-1852
• DOI: 10.1108/LBSJMR-06-2023-0021

PurposeThis article aims to conduct a bibliometric study using structural and relational approaches amongst the extracted documents and investigates the connections between business incubation and entrepreneurship-related papers to describe the field comprehensively.Design/methodology/approachA total of 259 articles have been retrieved from Scopus database in order to conduct the bibliometric analysis. Performance analysis and science mapping techniques of bibliometrics have been used along with data visualisation software, i.e. VOSviewer and RStudio. The network collaboration and intellectual structures, i.e. bibliographic coupling, co-occurrence analysis, word cloud and trending topics, have been presented to identify the field’s latest trends, themes and development.FindingsThe findings highlight annual publication trends, including the most frequently cited articles, the most productive authors, countries and highly influential journals that contribute the most to the said field. The intellectual structures have been developed to identify research themes and trends by running co-occurrence analysis and bibliographic coupling. The findings of this study emphasize the value of technology transfer, mentorship programmes, entrepreneurship education and an emphasis on innovation and creativity through entrepreneurial universities and academia. These findings provide policymakers and administrative officials with crucial guidance for fortifying the pillars of entrepreneurship and education for the comprehensive development of the economy. Further, this article attempts to identify the most influential and relevant publications as well as the newest trends in the area of business incubation in combination with entrepreneurship.Research limitations/implicationsThe article contributes not only to broaden the scope of knowledge on the said research discipline but also to comprehend how the field has evolved over a period of time. This study also attracts the interest of scholars/academicians, leading to the significant production of scholarly documents in business incubation and entrepreneurship.Practical implicationsThe field of entrepreneurship and business incubation is one of the important pillars for the growth and development of the economy. This piece contributes to this arena by focusing on the areas that must be taken care of by developing the entrepreneurial ecosystem and fostering the progress of startups. The fundamentals of this research highlight t