Trevor Israelsen
Assistant Professor
Dr. Trevor Israelsen is an Assistant Professor of Organization Theory at the Smeal College of Business at Penn Sate. He received his PhD in Management and Organization Studies from the University of Victoria. Prior to this he worked as an Assistant Director of the Institute for Entrepreneurship at Miami University. He completed masters and bachelors degrees in History from Miami University and Utah State University.
Expertise
Dr. Israelsen studies the management of history, tradition, legacy, heritage, and inheritance in organizations. He uses qualitative and historical research methods to study forms of social and economic organization that achieve competitive position and resilience not only through economic efficiency but also by becoming embedded in an enduring community of stakeholders. Such institutions can include, for example, multigenerational family businesses, trust-owned businesses, business groups, foundations, heritage brands, estates, religious organizations, family dynasties, arts organizations, crafts and trades, community-based organizations, and other organizations dedicated to preserving a historical or cultural inheritance.
Education
Ph.D. in Management and Organization Studies, University of Victoria, Gustavson School of Business, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, This dissertation explores how collective action becomes conflated with heroic individuals. My thesis is that the individual entrepreneur is the product, rather than the agent, of successful acts of entrepreneurship. That is, “the entrepreneur” of American business mythology is the product of successful acts of entrepreneurial conflation in which the narrow economic project becomes embedded in a broader societal project that involves multiple individuals, unfolds across generations and embraces overlapping domains such as culture, religion, politics, philanthropy and history. I introduce the construct of <i>entrepreneurial conflation </i>as a transformative social practice of collapsing, blurring or amalgamating underlying distinctions used in the conceptual architecture of prevailing institutions. I elaborate the construct of entrepreneurial conflation through an empirical examination of the legacies of prominent entrepreneurs and their families in American business history. My core argument is that the skillful use of entrepreneurial conflation is the key mechanism through which entrepreneurial families subvert the conceptual architecture of prevailing modern institutions to achieve legitimacy as business dynasties in American society. By introducing the construct of entrepreneurial conflation, I identify how a loose constellation of practices that we intuitively associate with entrepreneurial success are composed by an underlying social process. By applying my conceptualization of entrepreneurial conflation to the phenomenon of successful entrepreneurial families, I demonstrate how business dynasties—which are typically seen as anachronistic and irrelevant in modern, western societies—have enduring relevance for good and bad in business and society of the twenty first century. And by situating empirical research on entrepreneurial conflation at the intersection of grounded theory and historical methodologies, I illustrate how patterns in the analysis of historical evidence and narratives can be used to develop theory in management and organization studies., 2023-05-01 M.A. in History, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, USA, This thesis explores the history of Cincinnati’s Episcopal Hospital for Children during the Progressive Era. The article describes an extended process of professionalization whereby the diocesan charity became a vanguard organization in the nascent specialization of pediatric medicine. This transformation was largely a cultural one. While the hospital’s annual reports maintained discursive continuity about its central mission, distinct interpretations of the concepts of <i>child welfare</i> and <i>health</i> by intra-organizational groups acted as the key drivers of organizational change. The Board of Lady Managers believed that the organization needed to provide holistic care, emotional security, and Christian salvation to poor children. In contrast, doctors from the hospital’s Medical Board emphasized the need for scientific healthcare practices and policies. Crises and conflict pitted the two groups against one another, ultimately resulting in the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital and Pediatric Research Foundation of the 1930s., 2016-06-01 B.A. in History, Utah State University, Logan, Utah, USA, 2014-06-01
Courses Taught
ENGR 425 – New Venture Creation
Via problem-based learning, students define new business ventures to meet current market needs, develop business models, and present to various stakeholders. The goal of New Venture Creation is to better prepare undergraduate students to be leaders in adaptive, globally-minded, technology-savvy organizations. The course is structured so students develop skills that are of high value in any workplace: leadership skills, self-efficacy, creativity and the ability to deal with ambiguity. Upon course completion, students will have a working knowledge of traditional and non-traditional ways for identifying a new product or business opportunity, quantifying the potential, understanding the key competitive factors, researching the audience, and producing a convincing plan for financing and launch. Students who want to augment the skills and knowledge from their major with the ability to develop a new product/service/process, will find New Venture Creation a valuable course. This is a novel problem-based learning (PBL) course, where the learning is student-centered, with faculty acting primarily in the role of facilitators. Active/Experiential learning happens in this course because students develop ownership of their venture concepts and are fully responsible for the genesis of ideas.
IST 425 – New Venture Creation
Via problem-based learning, students define new business ventures to meet current market needs, develop business models, and present to various stakeholders. The goal of New Venture Creation is to better prepare undergraduate students to be leaders in adaptive, globally-minded, technology-savvy organizations. The course is structured so students develop skills that are of high value in any workplace: leadership skills, self-efficacy, creativity and the ability to deal with ambiguity. Upon course completion, students will have a working knowledge of traditional and non-traditional ways for identifying a new product or business opportunity, quantifying the potential, understanding the key competitive factors, researching the audience, and producing a convincing plan for financing and launch. Students who want to augment the skills and knowledge from their major with the ability to develop a new product/service/process, will find New Venture Creation a valuable course. This is a novel problem-based learning (PBL) course, where the learning is student-centered, with faculty acting primarily in the role of facilitators. Active/Experiential learning happens in this course because students develop ownership of their venture concepts and are fully responsible for the genesis of ideas.
MGMT 425 – New Venture Creation
Via problem-based learning, students define new business ventures to meet current market needs, develop business models, and present to various stakeholders. The goal of New Venture Creation is to better prepare undergraduate students to be leaders in adaptive, globally-minded, technology-savvy organizations. The course is structured so students develop skills that are of high value in any workplace: leadership skills, self-efficacy, creativity and the ability to deal with ambiguity. Upon course completion, students will have a working knowledge of traditional and non-traditional ways for identifying a new product or business opportunity, quantifying the potential, understanding the key competitive factors, researching the audience, and producing a convincing plan for financing and launch. Students who want to augment the skills and knowledge from their major with the ability to develop a new product/service/process, will find New Venture Creation a valuable course. This is a novel problem-based learning (PBL) course, where the learning is student-centered, with faculty acting primarily in the role of facilitators. Active/Experiential learning happens in this course because students develop ownership of their venture concepts and are fully responsible for the genesis of ideas.
MGMT 601 – Ph.D Dis Full-Time
NO DESCRIPTION.
Selected Publications
Israelsen T., Gettys R., Mitchell J., Mitchell R. "When practices of care come to signify harm: Meaning inversion and the entanglement between means and ends in child welfare organizations" Academy of Management Journal, 2026-10-01
Suddaby R., Israelsen T. "Historical imagination: a historical institutionalist perspective" Management & Organizational History, 2026-01-01
Magrelli V., Suddaby R., Israelsen T., Rhondi E., De Massis A. "The Paradox of Entrepreneurial Imaginaries: Adriano Olivetti and the Olivetti Corporation" Journal of Business Venturing, 2026-01-01
Israelsen T., Gettys R., Mitchell R., Mitchell R. "Institutional Integration of Purpose in the Cincinnati Children's Hospital, 1883–1931" Academy of Management Proceedings, 2025-01-01
Mitchell J. R., Israelsen T., Mitchell R. K., Hua W. "Dialogue: Ordinary Language and Dialogue in Entrepreneurship" Academy of Management Review, 2024-04-01
Israelsen T., Mitchell J. "Insightful empirical knowledge in grounded theory and historical organization studies" Handbook of Historical Methods for Management, 2023-07-14
Suddaby R., Israelsen T., Mitchell J. R., Lim D. "Entrepreneurial Visions as Rhetorical History: A Diegetic Narrative Model of Stakeholder Enrollment" Academy of Management Review, vol. 48, 2023-04-26
Israelsen T., Tsai W. "Institutionalization as Values Abstraction: The Evolving Role of Values in Marriott International" Academy of Management Proceedings, 2023-01-01
Suddaby R., Israelsen T., Bastien F., Saylors R., Coraiola D. "Rhetorical History as Institutional Work" Journal of Management Studies, vol. 60, 2023-01-01
Suddaby R., Jaskiewicz P., Israelsen T., Chittoor R. "Traditional Authority in Social Context: Explaining the Relation between Types of Family and Types of Family-Controlled Business Groups" De Gruyter Handbook of Business Families, 2023-01-01
Hua W., Mitchell R. K., Mitchell B., Mitchell J. R., Israelsen T. "Momentum for entrepreneurial internationalization: Friction at the interface between international and domestic institutions" Journal of Business Venturing, vol. 37, 2022-11-01
Mitchell J., Israelsen T., Mitchell R. K. "Enrolling Stakeholders in Entrepreneurial Projects" Frontiers of Entrepreneurship Research, 2022-01-01
Cyr A., Israelsen T., Mitchell R. "To Build or Dissolve Bridges: Generational Disruptions and Legacy in Family Business" Academy of Management Proceedings, 2022-01-01
Mitchell J. R., Israelsen T., Mitchell R. K., Lim D. "Stakeholder Identification as Entrepreneurial Action: The Social Process of Stakeholder Enrollment in New Venture Emergence" Journal of Business Venturing, vol. 63, 2021-11-01
Suddaby R., Schultz M., Israelsen T. "Autobiographical memory and identities in organizations: The role of temporal fluidity" The Oxford Handbook of Identities in Organizations, 2020-02-05
Mitchell J., Israelsen T., Mitchell R. K. "Entrepreneurial cognition research--an update" The Psychology of Entrepreneurship, 2020-01-01
Israelsen T. "Autobiographical Memory and Individual Authenticity" Academy of Management Proceedings, 2019-01-01
Israelsen T., Mitchell J. "The Effects of Historical Analogy on the Subjective Perception of Entrepreneurial Opportunity" Academy of Management Proceedings, 2019-01-01
Israelsen T., Mitchell R. "The Cognitive-Symbolic Role of History in Imagining and Rationalizing Entrepreneurial Opportunities" Academy of Management Proceedings, 2018-01-01
Israelsen T., Sutter C. "From Whence the Hybrid Organization?: Welfare and Professionalism in a Children's Hospital" Academy of Management Proceedings, 2016-01-01
Israelsen T., Mitchell R. "Historically Grounded Theory" Edward Elgar Encyclopedia of Historical Organization Studies
Israelsen T., Suddaby R. "Inheritance as organizational purpose" Organizational Legacy and Change: De Gruyter