Int. J. Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management, Vol. 4, No. 1, 2004 3 Copyright © 2004 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd. Entrepreneurship: multiple meanings and consequences Dieter Bögenhold Faculty of Economics and Management, Free University of Bolzano/Bozen, Sernesistrasse 1, Postbox 276, 39100 Bozen, Italy E-mail: dboegenhold@unibz.it Abstract: Aim of the paper is to question for the meaning of entrepreneurship. A view through relevant pieces of the literature indicates that no consensual understanding exists about the understanding of the term. The most conventual practise is to translate entrepreneurship with self-employment. In this sense, the political postulated need to strengthen entrepreneurship will mean consequently to strengthen the ratio of self-employment. What is taken tooless into account, however, is the fact that even self-employment is fragmented into different classes of actors having different socioeconomic attributes, rationalities, and related biographies. Among this category of people, one may find the potential keys for future positive developments as well as one can meet with just the opposite, eg. people who are settled here since they have no other chances in the labour market for getting a job and related income. One of the conclusions is that entrepreneurship has multiple meanings and consequences. Keywords: entrepreneurship; self-employment; innovation; growth; labour markets. Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Bögenhold, D. (2004) ‘Entrepreneurship: multiple meanings and consequences’, Int. J. Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management, Vol. 4, No. 1, pp.3–10. Biographical notes: Dieter Bögenhold teaches at the Free University of Bozen/Bolzano. He hold a diploma (1979), Ph.D. (1984) and habilitation (1992) in sociology, all Bielefeld University, Germany. He belongs to different boards of international societies, journals, and working groups in sociology, economics and management. His research agenda covers management, labour markets, entrepreneurship and innovation, social stratification and diversity of lifestyles, and socio-economics. He is the author or editor of 14 books and about 100 published papers, he has held visiting professorships at many international institutions. 1 Introduction The aim of this paper is to question the meaning of entrepreneurship. A search of relevant pieces of the literature indicates that no consensual understanding exists about the term. The most conventional practice is to translate entrepreneurship to mean self-employment. In this sense, the political postulated need to strengthen entrepreneurship will consequently mean to strengthen the ratio of self-employment. What is taken too little into account, however, is the fact that even self-employment is fragmented into different