The paper analyzes entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial orientation (EO- propensity or attitude) as basic concepts measured at individual, organizational and societal level, on their classical dimensions pro-activeness, innovativeness, risk taking, autonomy and competitive aggressiveness. Entrepreneurship is an important issue at European and world level, and entrepreneurial activities are highly encouraged, in order to unleash Europe's entrepreneurial potential, to remove existing obstacles and to revolutionize the culture of entrepreneurship in Europe.The aim of this analysis is double to clarify and comment on the determinants (as antecedents or influence factors) of entrepreneurial orientation (at different levels- individual, family, education, company, country) and to synthesize and comment on the possible outcomes (effects) of entrepreneurial orientation (value creation, new business development, company performance, innovation capacity, economic development, economic growth, international cooperation). We performed a thorough literature review, followed by critical analysis and synthesis. The paper is a theoretical and conceptual one. The main focus was on the different layers of influence, the analyzed concepts being of interest for human resources management (hiring people with entrepreneurial abilities, training and developing EO for existent employees), organizational behavior and organizational change (provide the appropriate organizational environment for enabling EO, develop leadership and innovative capabilities), as well as for strategic positioning (through the competitiveness dimension and the EO effects on networking and international business). Our study synthesized influence factors from all potential layers national, regional, organizational, family, individual and situational. The study would allow the development of future applied researches using a complex, exhaustive model of entrepreneurial orientation. A second stream for future research would be to introduce into the equation the distinction between formal and informal entrepreneurship, informal economy being a subject of particular interest for Europe.
