If we are losing large firms, but small firms are the key to our new future, we need an incubator, communities reasoned. Of course, no incubator can carry such a burden. Many have been failures. But the notion of a new incubator continues to be an unrealistic symbol of hope for communities without one. However, I do feel comfortable saying that even if expectations of incubators are overblown in some circumstances, that doesn't mean that they're not appropriate, with the right expectations and right management in other situations.
Incubators can be one valuable tool among many in an economic-development strategy.
Thus, I think your article goes a bit too far in questioning the notion of incubators per se. It would be more appropriate to question how the tool has been applied. Communities and funding organizations considering small-business incubators need to understand the circumstances where an incubator is appropriate, the best management practices, and realistic outcomes. These are the questions I would like to see answered if you pursue the value of incubators further. Incidentally, EDA funded a 1989 analysis of one element of its incubator-funding program led by David Allen, then at Penn State University, now at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio.