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Where does the success of business incubators come from? In the space of just two years, they have established themselves in Europe and the United States as a means of stimulating business start-ups. Philippe Albert has carefully studied the workings of these new instruments, in a survey of twenty-four incubators around the world. While it would be premature to draw general conclusions on the effectiveness of these still very recent developments, we can already identify the conditions that facilitate or handicap their success.