Technology Incubator Performance in New Zealand

Abstract

Business incubation and technology incubation is an area where new ideas are combined with resources and expertise in order to produce viable products and businesses. The business and technology incubation sector in New Zealand is relatively young compared to the United States and a government program administered by New Zealand Trade and Enterprise provides assistance to incubators by way of government assistance programs and targeted funding. Administration of the program requires incubators that are recipients of government funding provide information on their performance so that New Zealand Trade and Enterprise can assess the performance of the incubation programs. From this data a Return on Investment analysis is taken which provides indicators of the effectiveness of the incubation program. Due to the newness of the incubation programs in New Zealand, a limited amount of performance metrics are compiled for a comparative analysis. The paper presents performance indicators of the technology and business incubation programs supported by New Zealand Trade and Enterprise and discusses future metrics for a more detailed analysis of performance.