Technology Business Incubators in India: Structure, Role and Performance

Why do Technology Business Incubators (TBIs) emerge rapidly as an instrument of start-up promotion in emerging economies like India? In what forms? What role do they play in start-up promotion? What are their major achievements? These questions have been answered empirically in this book. Accordingly, this book explores the nature, structure and process of incubation resulting in start-up generation and in the process, R&D contribution emerging from TBIs comprising accelerators, incubators and co-working spaces in three of the leading start-up hubs, namely, Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad, in India. It describes typology, objectives, sponsors, and facilities provided by these TBIs. It further explores the process of selection, incubation and graduation of start-ups as it exists in these TBIs. Thereafter, it makes an assessment of R&D contributions that have emerged from the TBIs in the form of R&D inputs comprising personnel and capital expenditure, and R&D output in the form of new products/services developed, patent applications filed and revenue generated.

Policy makers, researchers, engineering and management students, technology and business mentors, angels, venture capitalists, and MNC executives will find this book informative, revealing and a source of valuable insights on the new, emerging India.

M H Bala Subrahmanya is a Senior Professor at the Department of Management Studies, Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore, India. He is an economist specializing in industrial economics and has written on a wide range of topics in his research such as: start-ups; micro firms; SMEs; large scale enterprises including TNCs; industrial R&D and technological innovations; entrepreneurship; industrial energy consumption; industrial subcontracting; and productivity and industrial performance. He has published 59 articles in a wide range of international journals and in excess of 100 articles in Indian journals.

Dr H. S. Krishna is an independent research consultant based in Bengaluru, India. He has over two decades of professional experience spanning across academia, entrepreneurship and industry. Dr Krishna's research interests are entrepreneurial ecosystems, with particular focus on high-tech start-ups, transnational entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial learning. His research papers have been published in refereed national and international journals. Prior to his academic stint, Dr Krishna had a successful career in the software industry for about a decade. He held multiple leadership roles in Strategy & Technology and Software Product Development Divisions at IBM India, IBM USA, Rational Software and Keane India.