The third millennium seems marked by a renewal of the entrepreneurial spirit, which affects all countries and all sectors of economic and social life: business start-ups or takeovers, associations and even public services. Let us refer to the words of Claude Allègre, French Minister of National Education and Research at the time, in an interview published in Les Echos, on 3 February 1998: ‘I want to instil an entrepreneurial spirit in the education system’ in an attempt to raise awareness of entrepreneurship within this institution. He also added, to clarify his vision: ‘The objective, which concerns higher education at large, is to get people used to creating companies while they're young, and to invent new techniques. I would like more innovators, and fewer scholars.’

So entrepreneurship has become a ‘burning issue’: teachers, managers, executives, consultants, politicians, everybody, or almost everybody, feels concerned. Entrepreneurship teaching is developing; classes for students and specific training courses for entrepreneurs have been available for quite a few years now. Incubators and structures for the support of creation and/or development of new venture projects are springing up everywhere in the world, to meet an ever growing demand. Large corporations are particularly interested in this phenomenon and seek the best programmes and institutions in an attempt to increase the awareness of their executives, and bring them to emulate the behaviours and attitudes of entrepreneurs who create economic and social value. The rapid changes affecting the societies of many countries are clearly linked to this renewed interest.