Measuring Incubator Success During a Global Pandemic : A Rapid Evidence Assessment

Business incubators have become a popular option for innovators and entrepreneurs looking for workspace, resources, and partnerships. This rapid evidence assessment (REA) will examine how business incubators can measure success during the COVID-19 global pandemic. The best available academic literature regarding business incubator performance metrics have been evaluated to determine how entrepreneurs are meeting the challenge to create solutions during COVID-19. Eleven peer-reviewed academic articles related to business incubator performance and metrics were evaluated and critically appraised to develop recommendations for business incubators. Thematic synthesis was used to find themes in the appraised articles. Theoretically, the contingency theory was used to underpin this REA. Challenges were incurred in that there is limited literature on how to measure these benchmarks, which indicates an inconsistency in reporting success to the incubator stakeholders. The discussion concludes with recommendations for business incubators of ways in which to begin measuring success now and post-COVID-19