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Sunday Advocate
November 3, 2002
The Louisiana Business & Technology Center
at LSU has been ranked as a "top-performing
technology incubator" by the National Business
Incubation Association, according to a news release
from LSU.
The rankings are based on a 12 month analysis
funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of
Commerce's Office of Technology Policy.
LSU said the study ranked the LBTC first in terms
of average employment growth achieved by client
companies and ranked the center second in terms
of the average revenue growth in its client companies,
compared with incubators whose clients had a product
or service emphasis.
A spokesman for the National Business Incubation
Association could not confirm those rankings,
but LSU scored well in the survey, she said.
"Out of the 80 programs in a variety of
performance measures, LBTC was among the top 10
performers out of its peers," said Meredith
Erlewine, director of publications for the association.
She said a majority of business incubators in
the nation are members of NBIA and thus participated
in the study.
In conducting the study, an industry research
team organized by the National Business Incubation
Association examined the make-up and performance
of technology incubators across the country to
determine the characteristics key to high-performing
programs.
"This ranking validates the hard work of
the LBTC staff and the support of Louisiana State
University and establishes Louisiana as a benchmark
for other incubator programs in the United States,"
Charles D'Agostino, executive director of the
LBTC, said in a statement.
"Our success is judged by the success of
the LBTC tenants and clients that have created
thousands of jobs for Louisiana. We feel that
we have made a difference in the economy of Baton
Rouge and the state," he said.
Since opening in 1988, the LBTC has graduated
89 tenant companies, 73 of which are still in
business, the news release said.
The LBTC also has provided management assistance
to more than 2,756 businesses and entrepreneurs;
helped start more than 346 businesses; created
or saved an estimated 8,043 jobs; supported 1,343
companies in the Small Business Innovative Research
program; and, since January 1999, facilitated
funding of $25,365218 in equity, grants and loans.
[ LSU
Press Release ]
[ U.S.
Department of Commerce's Office of Technology
Policy Report ]
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