How do entrepreneurial pre-incubation programs work?

Over the past decade, pre-incubation programs have received increasing attention from scholars in entrepreneurship. Despite the great attention and interest from scholars, policy makers, and aspiring entrepreneurs, however, there remains a need to understand how entrepreneurial pre-incubation programs work. This thesis aims to shed light on the role of pre-incubation programs in guiding aspiring entrepreneurs in transforming their business ideas into new ventures. To achieve this, it provides a comprehensive overview of current knowledge on entrepreneurship teaching and learning in pre-incubation programs. Then, it analyses whether career preferences of early-career academics drive their entrepreneurial learning in pre-incubation programs. Finally, it estimates the effect of entrepreneurship education treatment on subsequent business creation. The thesis contributes to several strands of literature. First, it contributes to the literature on entrepreneurial education and entrepreneurial ecosystem. Second, it enriches the literature on entrepreneurial learning in pre-incubation programs. Third, it contributes more broadly to the literature on the whether and how pre-incubation programs work. Finally, it provides implications for policy makers, managers, and entrepreneurs. To do so, the research uses primary and secondary data collected from Start Cup Emilia-Romagna, a pre-incubation programs in Italy. The data were analyzed using qualitative and quantitative methods.