Business Incubators, Networking and Firm Survival: Evidence from Turkey
Onur Sungur

Abstract
The aim of this study is to examine the effects of external networking activities of business incubators on tenant firms’ survival performance through the lenses of “Business Development Centers” (ISGEMs) in Turkey, a kind of business incubator programs generally focusing low-tech firms. The sample consist total 414 tenant firms in 12 ISGEMs in 10 provinces (all ISGEMs in Turkey). External networking activities are categorized as: (1) offincubator firms, (2) university, (3) external service providers, (4) commercial unions and (5) financial institutions. As methodology, survival analysis is used and the effects of different networking services on survival rates are presented through Kaplan-Meier survival estimates. As a result of the study, it is concluded that the external networking service in business incubators have positive effect on firms’ survival. In all networking categories, results show that the firms which have networking ties with related actors have higher survival probabilities than firms which have not any networking activities.

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