The operational aim of all business incubation programs is
to create the best possible conditions for people who want to develop their own business. AIEs are
primarily focused on the support of people associated with academia, i.e. aca- demic staff and
students, who – in their companies – bet on transfer of knowledge and its application in the
economy. The vast majority of incubation programs in Poland is sup- ported by the European Union
within the framework of various projects. It is similar in AIEs case, which function as an EU
project that requires a specific formulation of execution and settlement. This strongly limits the
flexibility of incubators, as there is not even possible to change the profile of support for
participants beyond what is included in the budget of the Project. This is probably one of the rea-
sons why people who are managing incubators are mainly focused on reaching the quantitative
indicators of the pro-ject, such as the number of companies established in the
incubator, but qualitative indicators – such as the quality of
the preparation of future entrepreneurs to business activities
– that are difficult to measure on the project level, are far
less important. For this reason, the study made by the author
should be a valuable pictorial material for the management
of incubators and people planning EU support for incubators
EU for 2014-2020. The study confirms that entrepreneurs
using incubators, perceive their business career as primarily
one specific project that they want to do in cooperation with
the incubator. They do not attach sufficient weight to the fact
that at that time, competencies and managerial skills that are
gained by them, will pay dividends throughout their lives,
regardless of their future professional positions, and regardless
of whether the business model created by them in the
incubator, will be sustainable and profitable. As it is shown
by the research, businesses men leaving the AIE as a mature
start-up have a proven idea for their own business in hand,
but they are not fully prepared for running it, from the point
of view of managers’ and entrepreneurs’ competencies. It
is caused by incubators’ activity formula (no compulsion
to use certain forms of support), and also low interest from
the participants of the incubator. In such a situation it is
necessary to take action to motivate future entrepreneurs to
intensify the use of the incubator.