Editing Business incubator (section)

==Overview==
===Incubation process===
Unlike many business assistance programs, business incubators do not serve any and all companies. Entrepreneurs who wish to enter a business incubation program must apply for admission. Acceptance criteria vary from program to program, but in general only those with feasible business ideas and a workable business plan are admitted.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Bryan|first1=Kevin A.|last2=Tilcsik|first2=András|last3=Zhu|first3=Brooklynn|date=2017|title=Which Entrepreneurs are Coachable and Why?|journal=American Economic Review|language=en|volume=107|issue=5|pages=312–316|doi=10.1257/aer.p20171010|issn=0002-8282}}</ref> It is this factor that makes it difficult to compare the success rates of incubated companies against general business survival statistics.<ref>Meredith Erlewine, "Comparing Stats on Firm Survival." In ''Measuring Your Business Incubator's Economic Impact: A Toolkit.'' Athens, Ohio: National Business Incubation Association, 2007.</ref>

Although most incubators offer their clients office space and shared administrative services, the heart of a true business incubation program is the services it provides to startup companies. More than half of incubation programs surveyed by the National Business Incubation Association<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nbia.org/about_nbia/|title=About Us}}</ref> in 2006 reported that they also served affiliate or virtual clients.<ref name="knopp2006" /> These companies do not reside in the incubator facility. Affiliate clients may be home-based businesses or early-stage companies that have their own premises but can benefit from incubator services. Virtual clients may be too remote from an incubation facility to participate on site, and so receive counseling and other assistance electronically.

The amount of time a company spends in an incubation program can vary widely depending on a number of factors, including the type of business and the entrepreneur's level of business expertise. [[List of life sciences|Life science]] and other firms with long research and development cycles require more time in an incubation program than manufacturing or service companies that can immediately produce and bring a product or service to market. On average, incubator clients spend 33 months in a program.<ref name=knopp2006 /> Many incubation programs set graduation requirements by development [[benchmarking|benchmarks]], such as company revenues or staffing levels, rather than time.

#Eligibility
#Admission process
#Intellectual property
#Seed loan
#Infrastructure
#Common infrastructure
#Other services
#Periodic assessment
#Information submission
#Consideration
#Tenure in BI
#Exit
#Conflicts of interests and confidentiality of information
#Disclaimer
#Agreements

===Goals and sponsors===

Business incubation has been identified as a means of meeting a variety of [[economic]] and [[socioeconomic]] policy needs, which may include job creation, fostering a community's entrepreneurial climate, technology commercialization, diversifying local economies, building or accelerating growth of local industry clusters, business creation and retention, encouraging minority entrepreneurship, identifying potential spin-in or spin-out business opportunities, or community revitalization.<ref name=knopp2006 />

About one-third of business incubation programs are sponsored by economic development organizations. Government entities (such as cities or counties) account for 21% of program sponsors. Another 20% are sponsored by academic institutions, including two- and four-year colleges, universities, and technical colleges.<ref name="knopp2006" /> In many countries, incubation programs are funded by regional or national governments as part of an overall economic development strategy. In the United States, however, most incubation programs are independent, community-based and resourced projects. The U.S. [[Economic Development Administration]] is a frequent source of funds for developing incubation programs, but once a program is open and operational it typically receives no federal funding; few states offer centralized incubator funding. Rents and/or client fees account for 59% of incubator revenues, followed by service contracts or grants (18%) and cash operating subsidies (15%).<ref name="knopp2006" />

As part of a major effort to address the ongoing economic crisis of the US, legislation was introduced to "reconstitute [[Project Socrates]]". The updated version of Socrates supports incubators by enabling users with technology-based facts about the marketplace, competitor maneuvers, potential partners, and technology paths to achieve competitive advantage. Michael Sekora, the original creator and director of Socrates says that a key purpose of Socrates is to assist government economic planners in addressing the economic and socioeconomic issues (see above) with unprecedented speed, efficiency and agility.<ref>{{cite book | last1 = Sekora | first1 = Michael | title = Mastering the Art of Competition | publisher = Jossey Bass | date = 28 Jan 2010  | location = New York, New York | isbn = 978-0-470-50071-2}}</ref>

Many for-profit or "private" incubation programs were launched in the late 1990s by investors and other for-profit operators seeking to hatch businesses quickly and bring in big payoffs. At the time, NBIA estimated that nearly 30% of all incubation programs were for-profit ventures. In the wake of the [[dot-com bust]], however, many of those programs closed. In NBIA's 2002 State of the Business Incubation survey, only 16% of responding incubators were for-profit programs. By the 2006 SOI, just 6% of respondents were for-profit.<ref name="knopp2006" />

Although some incubation programs (regardless of nonprofit or for-profit status) take equity in client companies, most do not. Only 25% of incubation programs report that they take equity in some or all of their clients.<ref name="knopp2006" />