This special issue consists of an editorial, a commentary by Professor Gerard McElwee and five empirical papers, as detailed below. To make room for the studies presented below there is no teaching case in this issue. Professor Gerard McElwee is the founder and first Editor of The International Journal of Entrepreneurship & Innovation. This special issue is designed as a ‘Festschrift’1 to honour his editorial stewardship of the journal and to mark his own approaches to researching entrepreneurship. Indeed, under his tireless and patient guidance, the journal has gone from strength to strength to become internationally recognised. Gerard continues to have a distinguished academic career, which has included chairs at Nottingham Trent, Sheffield Hallam, the University of Huddersfield and now York St Johns. Through his editorship and his work with his peers and students, Gerard has demonstrated a passion and proven track record of doctoral supervision in several countries, and has examined many PhDs. He has encouraged many early career researchers to publish in IJEI. In addition, he is a Fellow of the Institute for Small Business and Entrepreneurship (ISBE) and formerly ran the Rural Entrepreneurship track at its annual conference, while chairing that special interest group. During his career, Gerard became known by peers for his patient approach of encouraging and supporting new scholars and peers, alongside his infectious humour and sagacious advice on all aspects of scholarship. Gerard retired from his editorial role in 2020 and Professor Laura Galloway and Dr Deema Refai are the new joint editors. We at the journal feel it is a relevant time to mark his achievements and editorship.