Role of Personal Values in the Entrepreneurial Process

Entrepreneurship is a phenomenon that has continued to gain impor- tance among researchers since the last decade. All the same, after more than 30 years of research the literature still presents difficulties for defin- ing some terms as basic as entrepreneur and entrepreneurship (Gartner, 1988; Bygrave and Hoffer, 1991; Rosa and Bowes, 1993). Entrepreneurship cannot simply be considered as an action, instead it must be seen as a whole process involving different stages; and this process is not one of a merely economic nature but draws from the social context which shapes and forms entrepreneurial outcomes (Jack and Anderson, 2001). Thus, the process is performed by individuals, and the study of the individuals that perform these activities is as important as the study of the process itself. It would be almost impossible to understand the entrepreneurial process without taking look at the individuals who perform this activity.