Diversifying impact: exploring conditions for business incubator value capture across multiple domains

Business incubators (BIs) are key to promoting entrepreneurship, regional development, and societal impact, yet research often focuses on single outcomes overlooking how BIs capture value across multiple domains. This study examines how combinations of BI characteristics and strategic choices enable BIs to achieve value capture breadth – defined as capturing economic gains for the BI, value for their tenants, their region, and society. Using fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis on 122 German BIs, we analyse BI characteristics such as age, type, and size, along with strategic choices like service variety and openness orientation. The findings reveal six configurations that lead to BI value capture breadth, highlighting the importance of aligning BI characteristics with strategic choices. The study offers actionable insights for BI managers, policymakers, and regional developers to tailor their strategies for maximising BI value capture across multiple domains.