Recently, some incubators are focusing on supporting social startups. This type of incubators can be named Social
Incubators. The same specialization is also involving some Corporate Incubators, which can be named Corporate
Social Incubators (CSIs). Even if the literature has analyzed several types of incubators, the studies investigating
Social Incubators is limited. Moreover, to our best knowledge, no one has analyzed CSIs. This study aims at filling
these gaps analyzing the incubators of these typologies in Italy. In 2018, we identified 31 Social Incubators and we
sent them a survey, obtaining a representative response rate of 41,9%. In addition, we performed three exploratory
case studies on the three CSIs that we have identified. Our results show that Social Incubators are mostly private-
held; offer services on CSR and impact investing; and 30,8% of them invest in their tenants. Regarding CSIs,
our results suggest that they integrate strategies of Open Innovation and CSR.

Authors: Davide Viglialoro, Paolo Landoni.