Even though recent troubles have disrupted the world's economic scenario, they do not seem to have affected the renewed interest towards entrepreneurship and/or the entrepreneurial function which has emerged in the last decades. This sentiment has been stimulated primarily by the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) revolution and the emergence of a ‘new entrepreneurial economy’. This cluster of innovations assumed the character of a General Purpose Technology (GPT) and as such its effects were felt first in the activities directly connected with its production and implementation, giving rise to the dot.com entrepreneurial boom; later the wave of innovations progressively spread over the global economy, stimulating productivity and the creation of new firms. But when the undertow backwash came, it left behind a lot of victims, its effects made dramatically worse by the incumbent recession.

Therefore once more innovation seems to have played a fundamental role in determining entrepreneurship. But if this relationship actually exists, how strong is it? And, conversely, is there a link between the expansion and/or the renewal of the entrepreneurial class and economic growth? Is it possible to figure out some generalization about the reciprocal behaviour?

Recent investigations by specialized institutions have shown how difficult it is to grasp these associations, particularly with regard to the complex and manifold impact exerted by the social, cultural and political context on the implementation of entrepreneurial capacities and entrepreneurial opportunities.