The uSTART model: an evidence-informed framework for designing business incubation in small island developing states

Purpose This paper aims to propose the uSTART Model, an evidence-informed framework for designing business incubation programmes in Small Island Developing States (SIDS), using empirical evidence from a Caribbean SIDS. SIDS face distinct constraints: small markets, scarce mentors, thin capital markets and commodity dependence. Design/methodology/approach The model draws on a three-year longitudinal panel of 106 entrepreneurs in the uSTART incubator at the University of Trinidad and Tobago (2017–2019), focus groups with 51 participants and a content analysis of peer-reviewed incubation papers (2001–2020). Five design principles are derived through analytic synthesis. Findings Mentorship dominated across all four outcome models with the largest coefficients in each. Finance partitioned cleanly: predictive on output outcomes, non-significant on capability outcomes. This partition motivates a resource-versus-capability constraint distinction that organises the five design principles presented below. Research limitations/implications Evidence derives from one Caribbean SIDS; transferability to Pacific and Atlantic-Indian Ocean-South China Sea SIDS is a research question, rather than a claim. The three-year window may be insufficient for long-term assessment. The absence of a control group and reliance on self-report measures constrain causal inference. Adaptation to other SIDS contexts will require re-validation. Practical implications The framework guides policymakers designing incubation in resource-constrained island economies, positioning mentorship centrally. Originality/value To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is one of the first incubation design frameworks derived from longitudinal mixed-methods evidence in a Caribbean SIDS, and the first to propose a resource-versus-capability constraint partition as the theoretical organising logic for SIDS incubation design.