Boundary Objects in Practice: Business Incubators as Translation Devices
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.22439/jba.v15i2.7635Abstract
Business incubators have become central organizations within global entrepreneurial ecosystems, and their intermediary position between local entrepreneurs and multinationals calls for closer, more nuanced examination. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in Santiago, Chile, this article analyzes how incubators function as boundary objects that translate global entrepreneurial norms into locally situated practices. The article focuses on everyday activities and experiences, such as events, coworking environments, and programming, to study how incubators encourage entrepreneurs to adopt standardized vocabularies, expectations, and views associated with global investment culture. Through these processes, incubators organize participation, highlight specific forms of entrepreneurship, and establish shared frameworks among diverse actors. Rather than treating these dynamics as fixed or unidirectional, this article views them as translation practices that are continually adjusted as entrepreneurs respond to or reinterpret global standards within their own contexts. At the same time, translation operates as an ongoing, negotiated process through which entrepreneurial practices gain meaning across global and local settings.
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