Engines Driving Knowledge-based Technology Transfer in Business Incubators and Their Companies

Business incubators are designed to create change, and companies associate with them because they want to change. Acquiring, sharing and using information are the basis of the exchanges through which these changes are accomplished. The information exchange process thus provides a useful way to define the engines for the changes that accompany technology transfer. Van de Ven and Poole’s typology of organizational change “motors” is used to construct an analysis of the conditions and criteria of technology transfer as a driver of change in business incubators and their companies. We add to the conditions and criteria of this typology the additional element of content – as another important element in knowledge-based technology transfer. The results define several “engines” which drive change through knowledge-based technology transfer. Three business incubators are investigated to (1) determine whether the conditions required for the change engines are present, (2) assess the type of content targeted for exchange and (3) determine the concrete circumstances of their operation.