While considerable efforts have been made to conceptualize and outline the theoretical and normative logic of mission-oriented innovation policies and the role of the entrepreneurial state, there is a stark lack of empirical studies concerning how missions are designed and executed, and when they may work or do not. How Fares the Entrepreneurial State? reviews theoretical rationales for mission-oriented innovation policy and provides an empirical overview of 30 articles which together cover 51 concluded or ongoing missions from around the world. The authors synthetize varieties of mission formulations, actors involved, and analyze characteristics of missions described as more or less failed or successful. Among the projects analyzed, many do not fulfill common definitions of ‘innovation missions’. Missions related to technological or agricultural innovations seem more often successful than broader types of missions aimed at social or ecological challenges, and challenges in the governance and evaluation of missions remain unresolved in the literature.