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Over the past 15 years the literature on entrepreneurial ecosystems has emerged as important and compelling. This article reviews the literature at the intersection of entrepreneurial ecosystems and place in order to identify what is known and what is not known about the role of place in entrepreneurial ecosystems. This article sheds light on the definitions, methodologies, typologies, challenging and crisis contexts prevalent in the entrepreneurial ecosystem literature. It then introduces the six papers selected for the special issue and synthesizes their contribution with regards to future directions of entrepreneurial ecosystem research. This article concludes by highlighting the advances, gaps, and research directions towards a better understanding of the importance of research linking entrepreneurial ecosystems to place.