Role demands, constraints and choices: The impact of context and stakeholder expectations on business incubator managers’ strategic agency

Abstract

This study examines how stakeholders’ expectations influence the behaviour of business incubator managers, as demonstrated by their strategic agency. While existing research acknowledges the potential of effective business incubator management in fostering successful new ventures, it does not delve into this role's complex and contextual nature, particularly in developing economies. Understanding how stakeholder expectations influence incubator managers’ strategic agency enhances understanding of managerial role behaviours in different operating contexts and helps improve business incubation practices. Role theory posits that a role occupant’s behaviour is shaped by the demands and constraints emanating from the members of the role-set’s expectations, with little focus on the occupant’s agency. However, organisation and management literature show managers have agency and can enact their roles. Therefore, foregrounding this literature, the study answers, “In what way do stakeholders’ role expectations enable and/or constrain the strategic agency of business incubator managers in a resourceconstrained context?” The study uses a qualitative, multiple case study design involving six business incubators purposively selected in South Africa, a resource-constrained emerging economy in sub-Saharan Africa. The data were thematically analysed using abductive reasoning anchored by the role theory framework. The findings underscore the continuous struggle of incubator managers to gain and maintain the incubator's legitimacy. Gaining legitimacy hinges on delivering visible performance impacts, adhering to the incubator's mandate, and bolstering its reputation. This balance between performance impact, incubator sustainability, and reputation is the central driver of the incubator manager’s strategic agency. The findings enrich role theory by illustrating that the demands managers face, driven by stakeholders' expectations, can act simultaneously as both constraints and enablers of strategic agency. For practice, the findings inform policy regarding entrepreneurship support through business incubation in a resourceconstrained context. Moreover, practitioners can benefit from insights into how misaligned stakeholder expectations constrain incubator managers’ strategic agency. Furthermore, insights into the impact of organisational structures on incubator managers’ performance can inform incubator institutional arrangements and management practices suited to the contextual demands.