Data from a wide range of disciplines can be used to create a paradigm describing the factors that enter into the creation of entrepreneurial events. Throughout the literature, entrepreneurial events are defined in terms of operational factors, such as initiative taking, bringing together resources, management, relative autonomy, and risk taking. These factors, together with others, provide a partial explanation for the creation of an entrepreneurial event, such as the formation of a company. The greatest reason for the creation of an entrepreneurial event seems to be a change in an individual's life path, especially in a negative direction. Two cases in point are those of refugees and of individuals who lose their jobs. Other life changes can be precipitated by dissatisfaction in a job, midlife crises, or even the opportunity for risk taking, for example, when a possible partner emerges and makes cash available. However, the fact of a life change, while precipitating some action, does not necessarily precipitate company formation. The likelihood that life changes may precipitate entrepreneurial events increases according to family background, ethnic group, peer group, previous work experience, previous life path changes, and perceptions of feasibility. Some backgrounds and ethnic cultures are more supportive of entrepreneurship than others. Thus, the paradigm suggests that entrepreneurial formations are a result of interacting situational and social-cultural factors. Each entrepreneurial event occurs in real time as the result of a dynamic process providing situational impetus that has an impact upon persons whose perceptions and values are conditioned by their social and cultural inheritance and their experience. (KC)