The sources of social capital within technology incubators: the roles of historical ties and organizational facilitation

There are currently three divergent views regarding the sources of beneficial social capital within collectivities or networks: historical ties, organizational facilitation, and trust-based shared pursuit of common goals. Technology incubators are newer organizational forms that are created to support and accelerate the development and success of affiliated technology-based ventures. However, it is unclear how social capital that benefits the technological development of affiliated ventures is created within technology incubators. Drawing from the social capital, technology, and organizational learning literature, this study seeks to understand how technology incubators can create social capital that enables accelerated technological learning of affiliated ventures. Based upon a survey of 43 technology-based ventures affiliated with U.S. and Finnish technology incubators, results of this study suggest that facilitated networking support of the technology incubator serves as the primary source of social capital that enables accelerated technological learning of affiliated technology-based ventures. However, results also suggest that less established or newer technology incubators enable accelerated technology learning better than more established incubators. This suggests that technology incubators are not able to maintain historical ties that benefit the technological learning of affiliated ventures.