A Framework for Assessing Virtual Business Incubator Outcomes: The Case of the Rural Woman

Abstract

<p>Business incubators are entrepreneurial support mechanisms developed to serve multiple purposes and have distinct services that cater to their specific cohorts. Consequently, there is no consensus about measures, metrics and methodologies appropriate for assessing their outcomes. Given the evolution of the internet and web technologies, and in a COVID environment, business incubators are emerging as fully virtual with programs delivered entirely online, making the evaluation of outcomes even more complex. This is because processes are less bounded and incubatees tend to be geographically dispersed. To date, research on the effectiveness of virtual incubation programs is sparse and therefore the contribution of virtual business incubators (VBIs) to small business development still remains unclear.</p> <p>This research proposes a framework to evaluate outcomes of VBIs. The framework is informed by THE Rural Woman virtual business incubator and community of practice (TRW-VBI-CoP) in conjunction with the literature and comprises: i) properties of the digital technology, ii) trust, iii) characteristics of virtual organisations and iv) success factors of virtual communities. TRW-VBI-CoP is used as a case study to examine its service provision processes and how these relate to program outcomes. Program outcomes are evaluated at individual level, from incubatees’ perspective and comprise knowledge acquisition and self-efficacy enhancement, both critical to the survival, growth and success of their new business ventures.</p> <p>Importantly, the proposed framework, can be adapted and applied to a wide range of VBIs, regardless of their orientation/speciality (e.g., general vs specialised), characteristics of target group (e.g., rural vs metropolitan and female vs mixed gender) and stage of business development. The context influences incubatees’ perceptions, needs and wants, and therefore affect service provision processes, management practices and services provided by the VBI, which directly impact the outcomes achieved. </p> <p>The research findings reveal that TRW-VBI-CoP has successfully created an online environment for learning and networking governed by trust mechanisms where incubatees acquire entrepreneurial knowledge and enhance their self-efficacy. Culture, alignment of objectives between TRW-VBI-CoP and incubatees and the high degree of homophily, all foster the development of trust. The learning and network management platform (L&MNP) employed, complemented with other digital tools, confer TRW-VBICoP with the flexibility to quickly respond and adapt to the needs of incubatees. Moreover, as a community of practice, support and resources do not stem exclusively from the management team, but from the dynamic collection of incubatees, established businesses and affiliated partners. This research contributes to the literature of VBIs by deriving and validating an outcome evaluation framework that includes key variables for the provision of business programs and support online linked to entrepreneurial knowledge and self-efficacy obtained by the incubatees.</p>