Trent Williams

Trent Williams

Lorin Farr Professor of Entrepreneurship,
Management

Website: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=oWmwx8gAAAAJ&hl=en

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Biography

Trent Williams is a Professor of Entrepreneurship and holds the Lorin Farr Professorship. He is also the Director of the Rollins Center for Entrepreneurship & Technology. Prior to joining BYU, he held similar positions at the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University and the Whitman School of Management at Syracuse University. Prior to his career in academia, Trent worked with two startup firms before a career in management consulting with Deloitte Consulting and then PwC Advisory. His consulting work focused on facilitating corporate strategy processes and solutions, launching products / services as part of a corporate differentiation strategy (i.e., corporate entrepreneurship), and strategy implementation. These experiences shaped his interest in the tensions organizations (new and old) face in maximizing value from existing successes while simultaneously seeking to renew and improve organizations into the future.

Trent's academic career has focused predominantly on new venture emergence and creation processes, innovation, and social-psychological factors influencing entrepreneurial decision making. His research resides at the intersection of entrepreneurship and organization theories and focuses on community-organization emergence, value (social, environmental, and economic) from venturing, decision-making, venture growth / survival tradeoffs, resourcefulness, and resilience. His work as appeared in a variety of management and entrepreneurship journals (e.g., Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of Business Venturing, Organization Science, Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice, Journal of Management, Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, Academy of Management Annals, etc.) and books (MIT Press; Cambridge University Press). He is also a co-author of a textbook (Entrepreneurship, McGraw Hill) in a forthcoming edition (2027)

Trent has taught MBA, Executive MBA, and Undergraduate business classes and has also done consulting in helping organizations plan for and deliver rapid innovation processes through design sprints. He has taught courses and run workshops on the following topics: Design sprints for rapid innovation development, entrepreneurship, new venture strategies (launch, professionalize, pivot, grow, exit, etc.), business and corporate strategy, decision making under uncertainty, and strategies for organizational innovation and renewal.

Selected Publications

Awards

  • Lorin Farr Professorship in Entrepreneurship, Lorin Farr, 2026
  • 2026 Research Award, BYU-Marriott School of Business, Management Department, 2026
  • BYU-Marriott Excellence in Research Impact Award, BYU-Marriott School of Business, 2025
  • Kelley School of Business Research Award, Kelley School of Business--Indiana University, 2022
  • Trustees Teaching Award Nominee, Kelley School of Business-Indiana University, 2022
  • Poets and Quants 40 under 40 Award, Poets & Quants, 2021
  • Emerging Scholar Award, AOM Entrepreneurship Division, 2019
  • Responsible Research in Management Presidential Award Winner, IACMR, 2019
  • Eyster Teaching Award, Kelley School of Business-Kelley School of Business, Indiana University, 2018
  • Best Paper Award Winner, International Association for Chinese Management Research, 2017
  • Best Professor and Graduation Marshall, Whitman School of Management Graduate Defense Comptrollership Program, 2015
  • Guttag Junior Faculty Award, Whitman School of Management, Syracuse University, 2015

Languages

  • French

Administrative Assignments

  • Director — 2026

Professional Citizenship

  • Organization Science, Editorial Review Board Member, 2024
  • Academy of Management Review, Editorial Review Board Member, 2023
  • Academy of Management Journal, Editorial Review Board Member, 2022
  • Academy of Management Learning & Education, Editorial Review Board Member, 2022
  • Journal of Management, Editorial Review Board Member, 2021
  • Journal of Business Venturing, Editorial Review Board Member, August 2017
  • Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice Journal, Editor, Associate Editor, 2021–2029
  • Academy of Management, Officer (specify in Other), August 2024–August 2029
  • Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, Editor, Associate Editor, 2019–2023
  • Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice, Editorial Review Board Member, December 2017–2021
  • Journal of Business Venturing, Editor, Associate Editor, 2017–2021