We are fortunate to know Steve as one of our colleagues at University of St. Gallen, where he still acts as permanent guest professor. Steve was part of the core faculty of the SIM programme in St. Gallen, where he also supervised final academic projects. In his central role, Steven is Emeritus Professor of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Steve’s academic writing seminar in 2014 had a long echo with Benjamin who was attending as a PhD student at the time. In this way, Steve’s seminar certainly contributed to the early roots of this book through his role-modelling as one of the many much more experienced and inspiring peers you may be fortunate to meet and learn from at university.

In our discussions, Steve brought up a key idea that immediately resonated with many impressions we captured in our book, but found it hard to put a term on: the paradoxes of good conduct in research. Encouraged by this congruence, we chose to frame the chapter epilogues along the idea of navigating these paradoxes. Beyond paradoxes, Steve reminded us of the nature of the challenge that working on your research project truly embodies, the importance and characteristics of the supervisee-supervisor relationship, and the necessity to integrate both theoretical and practical thought.

With great sadness, we have learned of Steve’s passing just a few months before the release of this book. He has achieved what many aspire to: to be thoroughly missed as an exceptional teacher, a generous colleague, a thoughtful and kind person whose company and guidance one sought and cherished.