Entrepreneurial Opportunities Perception and Intentions within European Innovation-Driven Economies Under the Shadow of a Financial Crisis

Motives to start businesses differ widely among European regions. The current economic crisis suffered, to varying degrees, in almost all of the European countries raises the question of whether in financial difficulties entrepreneurial intentions increase or not. Paradoxically, two aspects, among others, influence the entrepreneurial attitude: the perception of opportunities (opportunity-driven factor) and the lack of alternatives (necessity-driven factor). In this contribution, firstly an exhaustive analysis of the most relevant theories of entrepreneurship from the psychological perspective is offered. An excursus is made in order to deeply explain the Entrepreneurial Cognition concept which illustrates the different cognitive processes underlying the way we learn to see and act on opportunities and how decision making on entrepreneurship is made. Based on the exposed theories, subsequently, it is examined to what extent the present economic circumstances may affect entrepreneurial thinking among citizens of the European Innovation-driven economies (all of them under the EU28). Due to the capital importance of entrepreneurial activities for the socioeconomic stability and growth in every economical region and with the finality to support the ideas presented above, subsequently, statistical data are analyzed, which corroborates the relatedness of entrepreneurial intention and the perceived regional economic situation.