Leveraging tenant-incubator social capital for organizational learning and performance in incubation programme

Abstract

This article seeks to construct and examine a model of entrepreneurial learning in incubation programmes by investigating focal tenants’ proactive leveraging of incubator-tenant social capital. Few have examined the interrelationships between social capital, interorganizational learning and incubation from a perspective treating tenant firms as focal actors. Surveys were collected from incubation programmes in Taiwan, where innovation and knowledge-based entrepreneurship is a critical success factor for both social and economic progress. Data were analysed by multiple regression and structural equation modelling. Results indicate that tenants’ proactive utilization of tenant-incubator social capital positively influences interorganizational learning mechanisms (OLM), which in turn transforms the benefit of social relationships into tenants’ performance, in terms of technological capability, managerial competence and satisfaction with (the) incubation programme. Theoretically, this article complements interorganizational network and interorganizational relation perspectives of social capital to understand the complex entrepreneurial learning, value creation and appropriation for entrepreneurial firms in incubation programmes. We argue that strong relationship and network contents with the hub organization can complement weakness in structural status. Practically, design for strategic networking practices, interorganizational learning management for capability building and innovation and policy considerations are discussed.