Business incubators and accelerators have a pivotal role at the heart of the start-up ecosystem, offering a diverse range of services and facilities in order to stimulate the creation and growth of promising new ventures. In line with technological advancements, changing policies, markets and business environments, and the shifting needs and demands of start-ups, incubators and accelerators have been evolving rapidly in recent years. For example, they are digitalising services, increasing out-of-walls support, offering new services such as soft-landing programmes in overseas markets, creating partnerships with other ecosystem actors, and specialising more on specific sectors and groups.
These developments pose a number of questions: How are incubators and accelerators’ evolving practices impacting the performance of start-ups and scale-ups? What are some of the inspiring new approaches that have had success in promoting new companies? To what extent are government policies advancing (or hindering) the evolution of incubation and acceleration practices? Examining these questions can unlock valuable insights for both policymakers and incubation and acceleration practitioners on how to strengthen support for high-potential start-ups.