Cisco

By placing corporate citizenship high on the priority list, companies become conscious of the impact they have on society. To engage in a CSR policy means that the company is enhancing society and the environment during the normal course of business, instead of contributing to them in a negative way. Cisco Corporate Affairs, with their commitment to social innovation, needed to understand the social incubation landscape in the United States.

As with any partnership, finding the right fit when looking to identify a business incubation program with startups that fulfill a CSR strategy is important, and most corporations have a high number of requests for support that matches their policy. Corporations that have a reporting and evaluation structure in place as well as a clear understanding of their expectations position themselves for success.

Cisco Corporate Affairs reached out to UBI Global with a goal of gaining a clearer picture of and measuring the success of social incubators.

Using over 40 key performance indicators, UBI Global evaluated the success factors of social incubators, including determining the value they created for their client startups, the impact they had on the social needs of their ecosystem, and the effect that resulted in the economy due to their efforts.

UBI Global went to work and mapped the social incubation systems in the United States, Cisco Corporate Affair’s primary market. The top performing social incubators were then identified by data analytics developed for the project. Finally, the top incubators were highlighted in order to share the best practices and knowledge these social incubators used to achieve such dramatic success. The UBI Global research team, in conjunction with Cisco Corporate Affairs, created a pioneering new research framework designed specifically to evaluate social incubators.