The Digital Transformation of Business Incubators: A Systematic Literature Review

Abstract

Business incubators are increasingly adopting digital technologies, yet research on this transformation remains fragmented. This systematic review, conducted according to PRISMA 2020 in Scopus and Web of Science and complemented by a search with alternative terminology and by citation searching, includes 23 studies published between 2010 and 2025. Their quality was appraised with the MMAT, and their findings were synthesised with the Antecedents–Decisions–Outcomes framework, distinguishing four levels of digital transformation and three levels of evidence. The field is young, accelerated by COVID-19 and dominated by case studies of university and virtual incubators. Three families of practices emerge: virtual incubation, digital tools integrated into incubation processes, and artificial intelligence. Most studies document changes in how support is delivered rather than demonstrated value creation: reported outcomes rest mainly on perceptions, and no study measures the economic effect of incubators’ own digital practices. The article proposes an explanatory framework grounded in dynamic capabilities and legitimacy, a research agenda and a managerial decision grid.