[ La transformation digitale au service de l’accompagnement entrepreneurial financier des incubateurs ]
Volume 41, Issue 2, December 2023, Pages 469–480
Hafsa Ouahi1 and Majda El Agy2
1 Department des sciences de gestion, Faculté des sciences juridiques économiques et sociales - Cadi Ayyad, Marrakech, Morocco
2 Department of Management Sciences, Faculty of economics, law and social sciences, Cadi Ayyad University, Marrakesh, Morocco
Original language: French
Copyright © 2023 ISSR Journals. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Business incubators are an important part of the entrepreneurial innovation ecosystem. Although, research on this topic remains limited. This article explores the contribution of digital transformation in facilitating the financial support process, as well as internal and external interactions with the various players in the entrepreneurial ecosystem. In addition, we have opted for an exploratory qualitative approach using semi-structured interview guides. We interviewed (10) ten business incubators based mainly in the cities of Casablanca, Rabat, Marrakesh and Agadir. The aim of our article is to explore the contribution of digital transformation to the main activities carried out by business incubators, especially the selection of incubatees, the assistance and also the networking. The results show that digital transformation, through platforms, videoconferencing applications and data management software, is essential to facilitate the financial support process. In fact, the obtained results had revealed a major impact on internal and external communication, speed and efficiency. The digital transformation has also saved business incubators an enormous amount of time, and ensured traceability of process bottlenecks and delays. However, the outcome of our study shows that specific issues, such as the cost of integrating new technologies and the reluctance of incubatees, can hamper significantly the successful implementation of this digital transformation within incubators.
Author Keywords: Incubatee selection, Assistance and support, Networking, Entrepreneurial ecosystem, Qualitative exploratory approach, Semi-structured interview.
Volume 41, Issue 2, December 2023, Pages 469–480
Hafsa Ouahi1 and Majda El Agy2
1 Department des sciences de gestion, Faculté des sciences juridiques économiques et sociales - Cadi Ayyad, Marrakech, Morocco
2 Department of Management Sciences, Faculty of economics, law and social sciences, Cadi Ayyad University, Marrakesh, Morocco
Original language: French
Copyright © 2023 ISSR Journals. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Abstract
Business incubators are an important part of the entrepreneurial innovation ecosystem. Although, research on this topic remains limited. This article explores the contribution of digital transformation in facilitating the financial support process, as well as internal and external interactions with the various players in the entrepreneurial ecosystem. In addition, we have opted for an exploratory qualitative approach using semi-structured interview guides. We interviewed (10) ten business incubators based mainly in the cities of Casablanca, Rabat, Marrakesh and Agadir. The aim of our article is to explore the contribution of digital transformation to the main activities carried out by business incubators, especially the selection of incubatees, the assistance and also the networking. The results show that digital transformation, through platforms, videoconferencing applications and data management software, is essential to facilitate the financial support process. In fact, the obtained results had revealed a major impact on internal and external communication, speed and efficiency. The digital transformation has also saved business incubators an enormous amount of time, and ensured traceability of process bottlenecks and delays. However, the outcome of our study shows that specific issues, such as the cost of integrating new technologies and the reluctance of incubatees, can hamper significantly the successful implementation of this digital transformation within incubators.
Author Keywords: Incubatee selection, Assistance and support, Networking, Entrepreneurial ecosystem, Qualitative exploratory approach, Semi-structured interview.
Abstract: (french)
Les incubateurs d’entreprises constituent une partie importante de l’écosystème de l’innovation entrepreneuriale. Cet article explore la contribution de la transformation digitale dans la facilité du processus d’accompagnement financier ainsi que les interactions en internes et en externes avec les différents acteurs de l’écosystème entrepreneurial. Nous avons opté pour une démarche qualitative exploratoire à travers des guides d’entretien semi-directifs mobilisés auprès de (10) dix incubateurs d’entreprises basés essentiellement sur les villes de Casablanca, Rabat, Marrakech et Agadir. L’objectif de notre article est d’explorer la contribution de la transformation digitale dans les principales activités menées par les incubateurs d’entreprises notamment la recherche et la sélection des incubés, l’assistance et le soutien ainsi que le réseautage. Les résultats obtenus indiquent que la transformation digitale, qui se manifeste à travers les plateformes, les applications de Visio-conférences et les logiciels de gestion des donnés, est essentielle pour faciliter le processus d’accompagnement financier. Celle-ci a un grand impact notamment sur la communication interne et externe, sa rapidité et son efficacité. En plus de permettre aux incubateurs d’entreprises un gain de temps énorme ainsi qu’une traçabilité des blocages de processus et de retards. Cependant, les résultats de notre étude ont montré que des points bien spécifiques notamment le coût d’intégration des nouvelles technologies et la réticence des incubés peuvent freiner la bonne instauration de cette transformation digitale au sein des incubateurs.
Author Keywords: Sélection de l’incubé, Assistance et soutien, Réseautage, Écosystème entrepreneurial, Démarche qualitative exploratoire, Entretien semi-directif.
How to Cite this Article
Hafsa Ouahi and Majda El Agy, “Digital Transformation in Support of Financial Entrepreneurial Incubator Assistance,” International Journal of Innovation and Applied Studies, vol. 41, no. 2, pp. 469–480, December 2023.
