Reference Center for Business Incubation: a proposal for a new model of operation

This paper proposes a new operation model for business incubation, called Reference Center for Business Incubation CERNE. It was structured as a maturity model of the capacity of incubators to systematically generate successful innovative enterprises. This model has four fundamental pillars: adding value to the incubatees, a dynamic incubation process, sustainability of the incubator and its integration with its environment. CERNE is implemented sequentially, at four levels of maturity, so that the incubator can initiate a given process when there is sufficient maturity to do so. The results reported by managers have been significant and highlighted among them are: improvement of the quality and quantity of the business ventures, systematization of the business incubation process, expansion of the interaction with the other participants in the innovation ecosystem and more professional management of the business incubator with a view to achieving sustainability.