International Best Practices of Business Incubators: The Roadmap for the Arab Countries

University of Brighton, UK

Business incubators are viewed by many countries’ governments as dynamic tools for fostering new ventures regarding economic development, job creation and as vital components of an entrepreneurial infrastructure. While there are over 7000 business incubators worldwide, only 21 are in existence in the Middle East.

This presentation argues the case for more business incubators in the Arab countries to support diversifying their economies, the commercialization of new technologies, job creation and wealth building. In the presentation, the speakers will introduce their recent research project/book focusing on business incubators in developed and developing countries. The book describes and compares key indicators of incubation best practices worldwide to identify the strengths and weaknesses of business incubators models around the world. In doing so the research uses successful international case studies based on models in developed and developing countries. The data was mainly collected by survey, semi-structured interviews and organizational documents from each case study.

Finally the presentation will provide a roadmap for the development of new economies based on technology, as well as value added in technology transfer, innovation development, and an entrepreneurial climate.

Speakers

Dr. Hanadi Al-Mubaraki
Kuwait University, Kuwait

Professor Allam Ahmed
Middle Eastern Knowledge Economy Institute, UK