Womens’ Perception of their Role as CEOs and Managers of Business Incubators: leadership, environment and challenges

Sammanfattning: Business incubators are a fundamental part of the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Sweden. One of the key actors in these institutions are CEOs and managers. However, research on how they lead and manage is still in the early stages, and it mainly addressed the topic from a male perspective. For this reason, the authors of the present thesis focus on getting a deeper understanding of how women leaders of Swedish business incubators perceive their role and the challenges they experience in what is considered a male dominant environment: the entrepreneurial ecosystem. To achieve the objectives, a qualitative and inductive approach was selected. Empirical data was gathered through semi-structured online interviews with nine CEOs and managers in different business incubators around Sweden. The participants of this research were either leaders of incubators that support the tech and life science industry or incubators that support any field. Afterward, a thematic analysis was conducted, which led to four key findings. The principal contributions were that women leaders perceive their role as the ones in charge of caring about the community within the incubator and that leading is an essential characteristic. In addition, it was found that women leaders deal with internal and external challenges while gender ones do not affect the perception of their role. The findings of the thesis suggest replicating the research addressing only one type of incubator and in other countries to see how the findings compare. Another approach can be to address the perception of different stakeholders of the role of the incubator leader.