The Role of Business Incubator in Supporting Innovation in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

This thesis has confirmed the importance that is attached to business incubators, and their role in fostering entrepreneurial start-ups and innovative new businesses. The government has publicly affirmed this in its policy statements. The research investigated just what role the incubators have played, which covers the scope of their involvement, levels of support, and how innovation is targeted and prioritized. The results of the questionnaires may be disappointing to those who had hoped that they would reveal high professional standards, clear evidence of practical help which has led to measurable results, and a development and expansion of their service to promise even greater things in the future. Instead, they reveal a great deal of confusion, a lack of coherence in terms of goals, methods and accounting practices, and point to an enormous amount of revision before the incubators can really be said to be fulfilling the expectations of the government. There are three main problems. First, the incubators do not have a clear understanding of their own role and how they are expected to help. They measure their own performance in terms of how many businesses they deal with, or how much revenue these generate, not in terms of the support of innovation to support a broader goal of economic diversification. Secondly, they do not show a genuine understanding of what innovation is and what is needed to support its growth. All the respondents claimed to value innovation highly and use it as an important measure of a company’s worth to be supported, but answers were confused and did nothing to show how innovation was identified or measured, nor what kind of specific help an innovative new company might need. “coaching and mentoring” do not go nearly far enough to address that issue. Third, the incubators do not appear to possess the high professional qualities that they need to improve themselves. Many are young, and do not have the experience or qualifications that their role demands of them, and there is no evidence that they are provided with the training they need. To meet these issues, several solutions can be recommended. The most important need is for a national supervisory body to take greater control in the establishment and training of incubators. Goals need to be clearly identified and shared by all the incubators, whatever their experience or size. Benchmarks need to be set, enabling incubators to understand how to monitor the progress of the companies under their care and how to assess their performance. A training program should be established whereby managers of the incubators can be shown how to oversee their own training events to deal with the aspects of coaching , guidance and mentoring, which feature so prominently in the help that incubators offer. Furthermore, incubators need to be encouraged to mutually support and encourage each other, with events and conferences organized. The third point is to draw on international expertise and experience by establishing contacts with professional services and bodies from other countries and inviting them to share with incubators in the KSA the knowledge they have. Finally, there is obviously a need for greater investment into the incubators and much higher levels of funding. It is unlikely that any of the ideas mentioned above will be possible without more money going into the programs.