Assessment of business incubators' green performance: A framework and its application to Brazilian cases

The lack of proposals to evaluate the greening of business incubators – or even of elementary discussions about the relations between incubators and the environment – becomes apparent when researching this topic in the most prestigious scientific sources. To address this gap, this article reviews the literature on green management and smaller enterprises, business incubator performance and the greening of business incubators. This conceptual big-picture was used to identify variables relevant to the construction of a framework for assessing business incubators' green performance. This framework was applied to six business incubators in Brazil. The results show the appropriated applicability of this framework. Furthermore, the empirical research led to the formulation of environmental maturity levels in order to classify business incubators performance. This paper seeks to offer a starting point for discussion and a proposal regarding the role of business incubators in a more sustainable society.

► There is a lack of proposals to evaluate the greening of business incubators. ► We propose a new framework to assess business incubators' green management. ► This framework was tested in six Brazilian business incubators. ► We propose a green maturity levels to classify business incubators performance. ► We offer a discussion regarding the role of business incubators in sustainability.