Based on the 710 business incubators related literatures collected in the core collection of Web of Science from 1990 to 2019, the research object is based on the CiteSpace visual analysis tool to draw a knowledge map. Through the spatiotemporal distribution of literature, literature co-citation analysis, keyword co-occurrence network analysis, etc., learn about the international research overview, knowledge base, and research hotspots of business incubators. The results show that the volume of international research publications of business incubators has exploded in the past three years; the knowledge base can be roughly divided into two categories: the role and development of business incubators, and the evaluation of business incubator performance. Research hotspots mainly focus on four aspects: business incubator performance evaluation, analysis of influencing factors on business incubator performance, incubation network and resource flow, and the impact of incubators on the growth of SMEs. And put forward the future prospect of business incubator research.