**1.4 Benefits offered by incubators**

Business incubators offer tangible and intangible benefits to start-ups [7, 8]. Tangible benefits often include the following operational aspects:


The intangible benefits derive from the ability of entrepreneurs to act as a support system among incubated start-ups. Intangible benefits are more likely to occur among start-ups with similar activities. For example, incubated high-tech start-ups can share the development of ideas and innovation. Biotech start-ups can support each other in the development and commercialization of innovative products.

Even in incubators with start-ups operating in distinct sectors of activity, entrepreneurs can share their experience, ideas, and knowledge on certain subjects such as marketing, product development, recruitment, and accounting.

Following the above, we can briefly state that the main objective of incubators is to support the development of start-ups, which leave the incubator when they increase in size or become sufficiently stable to operate without specific benefits offered by the incubator. This makes room for other start-ups to start their incubator operations.
