Entrepreneurship and SMEs Sustainable Development through Business Incubators: The case of Oman

Oman’s developing economy has relied heavily on hydraulics for its expenditure since the early 1970s.  However, due to the current business environment and the new direction of the country; the 2020 and 2040 vision tends to focus on transforming the country into an economy which relies on new sector development, new entrepreneurial business startups and SMEs.  Entrepreneurial startups and SMEs are significant factors in the development of sustainable growth of a national economy and it is expected that entrepreneurship in Oman will contribute greatly in its economic development and sustainability. This is since using SMEs to increase diversification in the economy, consequently, results in an increase of job opportunities. A startup entity tends to face several hurdles and challenges during the various stages of development such as rigid labor regulations, business knowledge, networks, attracting market segmentation, raising funds, procuring and operations, people management, policies and regulations and social culture. 
These challenges tend to arise because there is a lack of support for both business and for an existing entrepreneurial ecosystem. Business incubators can play a crucial role in developing an effective and supportive entrepreneurial ecosystem to support entrepreneurs in building their startups at different stages. The introduction of business incubators has the potential to help foster entrepreneurial talent as well as creating an environment for entrepreneurship; this is reflective of business incubators being tools at both the micro and macro level. Therefore, Business Incubation is viewed as a combination of business development processes, infrastructure and knowledgeable business experts - designed to nurture and grow startups.
Somewhere in the region of 7000 business incubators exists around the world in 2020, according to the National business Incubation Association. The aim of this paper is to showcase how business incubators may be capable of playing a critical role in developing the entrepreneurial ecosystem within Oman. Furthermore, the authors will show how our understanding of business incubators function may help with national development.  After considerable review of business incubators where it was concluded that business incubators represent the cornerstone of entrepreneurship and economic development and sustainability in any economy and especially in Oman. 
For example, the current study concluded that business incubators lead to job creation, new business formation, business stabilization and expansion, commercialization of research and knowledge and business sustainability.  All these benefits in turn will lead to economic development and sustainability, and in sustaining such benefits, there are certain critical success factors must be followed for the success of business incubators and they are having stringent incubate selection criteria; access to facilities and resources; access to consultant, advisors, and experts; access to regulations and legal framework; selection of quality of entrepreneurs, performance measurement and acceptance of innovative products or services.