Incubators Performance Measurement by Means of Balanced Scorecard: A New Trend in Innovation Evaluation

Along with formation of incubators and science and technology parks, by direct support of ministry of Science, Research and Technology, ministry of Industries and Mines, ministry of Industrial Development and Renovation, Governors of Iran decided to develop the incubators; this resulted in establishment of more than 40 incubators, with technical fields of activity. One of the outstanding subjects regarding these incubators, more than five years of activity, is that there has not yet been any studies and researches on incubators performance measurement, therefore this makes the judgment on effectiveness of performances quite complicated and difficult. In this paper, the authors have tried to provide a method which is adaptable with the features of these incubators for management and evaluation of them. The model used in this article is the Balanced Scorecard(BSC).By considering and focusing on different aspects of this model which are: Financial(or Shareholders), Customers(Tenants), Processes for service delivering in incubators and Growth and Learning, first the effective criteria for performance measurement were specified, then by means of TOPSIS1 method, a new trend for incubators -as non-profit governmental organizations- measurement was introduced.