Undertstanding the Entrepreneurial Process: a Literature review

In the last decades, entrepreneurship became a very popular topic both for scholars and policymakers, due to its particular role in the economic and social development of the countries. It is, indeed, capable of dealing with the current economic crisis stimulating innovation and technological progress, generating competition, creating employment and encouraging economic growth in general. The purposes of this paper are to provide a systematic review of the main theoretical approaches progressively introduced over the years and to analyze the different determinants of entrepreneurial behavior. Through a description of personal, social and societal factors, we maintain that it is necessary to increase the analysis and the studies on this topic, also in a psychological perspective, in order to plan training programs useful both for the individual and the society’s well-being and development.