Abstract:
The overall objective of the study was to examine the effect of strategic business services on performance of firms sponsored by university business incubators in Kenya. University business incubators provide a unique opportunity for firms to benefit from the talent and resources located in the university, particularly in development of products that require higher level of technology and sophistication.The specific objectives under study were business advisory, business networking, technological support, technology transfer and commercialization of innovation skills. Incubates managerial skills was studied as a mediating variable on the relationship between strategic business services and performance of firms sponsored by university business incubators in Kenya. The study adopted a descriptive survey research design where qualitative and quantitative data was collected from a random sample of university sponsored graduate incubates over the period 2011 to 2016. The study collected primary data from a sample size of 189 from a population of 372. A semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect data where closed-ended questions covering all the variables of the study with allowances for open comments. This yielded both qualitative and quantitative data. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics which yielded measures of central tendency and dispersion. Qualitative data from the questionnaires was organized along themes as per the research hypotheses to establish relationship between data and key patterns that emerged from the study. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze quantitative data which aided distribution of scores using indices and statistics. Regression analysis was used to test the relationship between the dependent and independent variables in the study using SPSS version 21. The study findings indicated a significant relationship between business advisory, networking, technological support, technology transfer services and commercialization of innovation skills on the performance of startup firms sponsored by university incubators in Kenya. Incubates managerial skills had a significant mediating effect. Multiple regression results indicated that business networking services scored the highest of all the variables at 0.542. R2 value was at 88.8% which implies that the total variation of performance of firms sponsored by university business incubators in Kenya is accounted for by corresponding change in business advisory, networking, technological support, technology transfer services and commercialization of innovation skills. The study recommends first, robust adoption of university business incubation strategy to commercialize knowledge generated and disseminated within the institutions of higher learning. Secondly, the incubation centres need to improve their delivery of commercialization of innovation skills strategy and support for acquisition of intellectual property rights for their client firms. Lastly, there is need to improve post incubation services of the firms upon exit.
