Global Practice in Incubation Policy Development and Implementation

INTRODUCTION

The study was conducted using desk research and in-country visits to meet some of the key players involved in incubator development, including government officials and incubators manager. With a well-developed incubation ecosystem and over 400 incubators Brazil has one of the most dynamic and successful incubation movements1 in Latin America and the developing world. Brazilian incubation is very much a bottom up process with universities acting as a key catalyst and facilitator, ensuring an emphasis on innovation while adapting incubator models to suit indigenous needs. Multiple levels of government and a diverse coalition of partners from various spheres in the main population centres and cities are involved in supporting incubators. This has ensured widespread adoption of the concept but not yet full national coverage. The government has clearly made incubators a policy priority as demonstrated by the range of initiatives to support incubators, incubatees, innovation and enterprise development alike. The policy emphasis in Brazil focuses on the ―softer‖ services such as project funding and networking, relative to the actual provision of physical space and management of hard incubation infrastructure. The latter is primarily undertaken by the universities which supply the physical space and staff to manage incubators.

OBJECTIVES AND BROADER STRATEGIC PUBLIC POLICY FRAMEWORK OF INCUBATION ACTIVITIES

haracteristics and Obstacles of the Environment

Brazil ranks 8th in the world economy with a population of 190 million of people, a dynamic economy and a per capita2 income of US$ 8,310 pro capita, the country is also recognised as a fast growing market being ranked as the forth business incubation market3. The latest GEM (Global Entrepreneurship Monitor) country report for Brazil ( Empreendedorismo no Brasil , 2007, http://www.gemconsortium.org/about.aspx? page=pub_gem_global_report) indicates that Brazil is still one of the world's most entrepreneurial countries, with a TEA (early-stage entrepreneurial activities) index of 12.7%, which means that almost 13 out of 100 active people are somehow involved in a start-up business. This index has been rather stable since it was first measured by GEM in 2001 and, although other countries developed faster in the early 2000's, Brazil still ranks 9th among the countries observed by GEM with respect to the entrepreneurial attitude of its people, mainly due to the fact that one out of five workers is an early stage entrepreneur or an established owner. As for barriers in starting a business, the GEM reports consistently outline that the major difficulties reported by entrepreneurs are related to financial constraints and bureaucracy download