Promoting innovation through the interaction between universities and business incubator's tenants - some perspectives and limits emerging from the Brazilian experience

The interaction between universities and enterprises (U-E) and business incubators have generated an increasing interest in several social segments, including policy-makers, development and financial agents, entrepreneurs, and academic and research community, from both developed and developing countries. Based on empirical evidence, this paper seeks to observe how business incubators have contributed to the strengthening of the U-E interaction, taking into consideration a policy rational usually stated for justifying incubators implementation: that the physical proximity between academic and entrepreneurial worlds may accelerate the process of diffusion and transfer of information, knowledge and technology, improving, consequently, the competitive performance of the productive sector.