Navigating the Incubation Journey: Challenges Faced by Startups in Business Incubators

This study investigates the influential challenges that startups face within business incubators, specifically from entrepreneur’s perspective. While incubators provide crucial support for early-stage ventures, startups even within these supportive settings often encounter significant challenges that can hinder their growth and success. The study employed an integrated approach of literature review and expert opinions to examine these challenges, modeling their linkages and categorizing them into cause-and-effect groups using a hybrid Fuzzy-DEMATEL approach. These findings are integrated into a comprehensive framework aimed at improving the understanding and prioritization of the challenges from entrepreneur’s perspective. The research sheds light on these roadblocks and how they relate to one another, offering entrepreneurs, policymakers, and incubator managers practical insights to enhance incubation experience. The study aims to help decision-makers create workable plans to deal with problems and improve systems of assistance in business incubators. Ultimately, this research contributes to improving the climate for innovation and startup growth, thereby illuminating the route to success in incubation programs.