Business incubators as support mechanisms for the economic development: Case of Maringá's Technology Incubator

Abstract

In an environment where competition is increasingly fierce, it is essential to create an innovation system, that ranges from basic research to the transfer of developments for the companies and the whole society. To verify this process, the most of the works are using the record number of patents as a proxy, given the difficulty of measuring new products, services and process for the market. Based in incubators of technology-based enterprises, in this article this problem was overcome, by measuring their products, services and processes. Thus, we developed this work with the main objective to assess whether there is interaction between the resident enterprises in technological incubator of Maringá, external companies and university.   The methodology includes a literature review on the subject, the development of variables related to incubator´s characteristics, the application of a questionnaire to the companies linked to Technological Incubator of Maringá, in order to verify the new products, services and process related to research that hit the market. The results point indicates the need for facilitating the process of innovation and interaction with university and industry by developed innovations.