Keywords

Incubator, Management, Measures, Scorecard

Abstract

Incubators are organizations that have become a key factor to the success of new ventures. One study jointly sponsored by the University of Michigan, Ohio University, the National Business Incubation Association, and the Southern Technology Council found that 87% of the firms that went through an incubator program remain in business and 84% remain in their community. Clearly properly run incubators can provide much benefit. However there is littleconsensus on goals and best practices for managing the incubators themselves. Recently an approach to integrating strategy and practice called the balanced scorecard (BSC) has emerged asa popular tool in many public and private organizations. The purpose of this thesis is to examine the BSC as a potential performance andmanagement tool for Incubators in Florida. While the list of major corporations and public institutions that has adopted some form of a balanced scorecard continues to grow, there has been no research into its adaptability to incubators. This thesis found potential benefits associated with applying the BSC model to incubators, such as maintaining incubator's competitiveness and improving communication and employee's performance. Because a full-scale balanced scorecard system entails a fairly intensive implementation effort, it cannot be prescribed randomly across the variety of incubator enterprises. Accordingly, a stage of development framework is employed to help categorize incubators, assess their respective planning needs and identify how the balanced scorecard approach can be applied beneficially. Under these parameters, it is proposed that for incubators where both the degree of managerial complexity and the prospects for extensive change are high, the balanced scorecard can be a useful mechanism for effective management. A number of important implementation issues are also explored and some directions for future research are identified.

Notes

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Graduation Date

2004

Semester

Summer

Advisor

Kulonda, Dennis

Degree

Master of Science (M.S.)

College

College of Engineering and Computer Science

Department

Industrial Engineering and Management Systems

Degree Program

Industrial Engineering and Management Systems

Format

application/pdf

Identifier

CFE0000136

URL

http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/etd/CFE0000136

Language

English

Release Date

August 2004

Length of Campus-only Access

None

Access Status

Masters Thesis (Open Access)

Subjects

Dissertations, Academic -- Engineering and Computer Science; Engineering and Computer Science -- Dissertations, Academic

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