Assessment of the social impact generated by Italian Incubators

In recent years, social impact has attracted a considerable interest from organisations around the world and this has also occurred in Italy. A pivotal role in creating an economic, social and environmental impact is played by incubators, organisations which actively sustain the creation and development of successful enterprises, thus contributing to the economic and social development of the region. The implementation of tools and methodologies for assessing the impact deriving from their activities is therefore inevitable. This study is proposed as a comprehensive analysis for incubators, but also for organisations, which desire to address the problem of assessing the different types of impact generated in the territory. In view of the breadth and complexity of the topic, as well as the lack of an exhaustive framework for measuring the performance of an incubator, the main objective of such analysis is to be a valuable reference for comprehending the context and to define a sufficiently detailed picture of the tools and key performance indicators needed to measure the impact, resulting in an innovative and strategic approach aimed at increasing awareness of the impacts created by the incubator and the incubated start-ups.