Moreira, António CarrizoDantas, José Guilherme Leitão2025-07-172025-07-172020-10Carrizo Moreira, A. & Dantas, J. G. (Eds.). (2021). Preface. In Handbook of Research on Nascent Entrepreneurship and Creating New Ventures. IGI Global Scientific Publishing. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-7998-4826-4.978179984826497817998482712327-34292327-3437http://hdl.handle.net/10400.8/13708EISBN - 9781799848271Entrepreneurship is far from being a novel concept. To find its roots we have to go back to the 18th century and to the original authors of the concept, namely Richard Cantillon and Jean-Baptiste Say. Nevertheless, despite the multiple authors who have successively addressed this issue over the many decades, entrepreneurship only earned “citizenship rights” in the economy from the 1970s/80s onwards, given the evidence that SMEs were critical regarding wealth and jobs creation, the reduction of regional asymmetries, and being more effective than larger firms in terms of innovation (particularly in the early stages of the innovation process).engEntrepreneurshipSMEinnovation processworldwide economyCOVID-19 pandemiceditorial10.4018/978-1-7998-4826-4