Categories and general characteristics of entrepreneurial infrastructure

Abstract

The paper presents the general characteristics of entrepreneurial infrastructure. One of the modern ways to support small newly established enterprises, which are in a developmental life phase, and entrepreneurs is the system of technological infrastructure comprising: entrepreneurial incubators, technology centres, science parks and business zones. Those are the different organizations that help entrepreneurs to develop their business ideas and to overcome more easily the initial problems in business, for which, in a wider context, the term business incubators is used, and also the clusters related to entrepreneurs who are in an advanced phase of entrepreneurship. An incubator is extremely suitable for newly founded small enterprises, which do not have their own business premises, sufficient funds and experience, on one hand, but, on the other hand, they have entrepreneurial ideas, goals and determination to do business. The opportunity to give local and regional support to newly founded and small enterprises by means of business incubators in Bosnia and Herzegovina is significant because it delivers the key elements for the development of incubators, such as unused spaces in all municipalities, that can be easily transformed into a workspace and adapt to the needs of new entrepreneurs. Incubators can function independently or they can be, for example, a part of a science park. In this paper, we present in the tables existing organizational forms of business infrastructure (clusters and entrepreneurs-business centers: free zones, industrial and business zones, science and technology parks, business incubators), their activities, and numerical strength in the territory of the Republic of Srpska.