ABSTRACT
Environmental factors are the ones that determine the outcome of entrepreneurship. Environmental factors are, for example: a religious ideology, market conditions, or, public policies, and so on. This chapter suggests to understand how entrepreneurial areas develop around research institutions or universities. 'Culture' is a notion that is often referred to when talking of entrepreneurship. It is commonly alleged that the United States of America have an entrepreneurial culture, whereas France, for example, would be quite anti-entrepreneurial as a result of its culture. It is a very difficult task to understand how entrepreneurial areas are set up. The most difficult part to understand is probably not which structural environmental elements are needed, but how human beings behave and are sensitive to the environment. Indeed, a theoretical framework based on Gidden's structuration theory, and the notion of culture as a result of interactions within institutions should be used. The emergence of such collective actors shows evidence of entrepreneurial dynamics.
