Abstract/Summary

The thesis analyses the dynamics of business incubation in Russia, its potential and prospects in the context of developing entrepreneurial ecosystem (EE) within the rapidly changing environment. The theoretical background of the term “entrepreneurial ecosystem” is studied, including its framework, players and roles, key performance indicators as well as regulatory tools which can be used to develop such ecosystems with special focus on business incubation. To build a framework, the author has conducted a literature review analyzing both conceptual and case-study papers on entrepreneurial ecosystems and expanded it with additional research on business incubators. Comparative analysis of the American, European, Indian, and Chinese models of business incubators in the context of EEs is conducted to describe the features of country-specific EEs and see how they reflect the local economic and market situation. Different cases of business incubators development in different countries are explored (both developed and developing) as well as the areas to identify similarities and differences in their activities and outputs. The development specifics and trends of business incubation in Russian Federation for about a decade were revealed through the analysis of consecutive surveys conducted from 2012 to 2020. The study shows that during the period in question business incubators in Russia have undergone a few external positive changes, including increased square space, staff quantity, average annual number of residents, annual budget, etc. At the same time, the total number of business incubators also significantly dropped which means that all the above positive changes do not reflect the growth of the business incubation market and the scaling of the most effective structures, but on the contrary, its optimization. The research has several implications. First, it shows the real state and dynamics in business incubation in Russia thanks to the analysis of complex surveys conducted by the author in 2012, 2016 and 2020. Those surveys contain a wide range of questions covering different important aspects of business incubators’ activities including BI 6 program, clients, environment, effectiveness, and finance. Practically this is the only study covering business incubation in Russia with that level of detail. Secondly, the research analyses the influence of the latest events like COVID-19 and the latest trends such as the rapid development of intra-corporate business accelerators on the state of business incubation in Russia to understand the reasons of the recent decline in quantity of BIs and possible ways out. In addition, the comparative analysis of business incubators in the context of EEs in different countries (USA, Europe, India, China) conducted in the paper helps to discover best practices and possible solutions which could fit Russian market and foster future growth.