This new collection provides a much needed retrospective view of the key academic work published in this area. The papers here highlight the importance of studying entrepreneurship from a wide range of perspectives, including research that derives from economics, history, sociology, psychology and from different business disciplinary bases such as marketing, finance and strategy. The overall focus in this set is on "entrepreneurial" activity, rather than specifically small or family-owned business and favours research articles over those that deal purely with practice.