Influential Professor and Mentor
Getting to know PhD Project member Dr. Isaac Yao Addae.
Dr. Isaac Yao Addae views entrepreneurship and innovation as powerful forces that have reshaped the world as we know it. As a faculty member at Tennessee State University and Vanderbilt University as well as the Nashville mayor’s appointed liaison, he is using his innovative skills to positively impact his students and community.
Dr. Addae recently shared his thoughts on his academic journey, current work, and how his Ph.D. changed his life.
Why did you want to earn your Ph.D. in entrepreneurship?
As a first-generation Ghanaian American, I come from a family where entrepreneurship is embedded in our DNA. As a child, I observed my parents managing various business ventures, and I often served in various support roles. This gave me an insider perspective on what it takes to run a business. In college, although I pursued computer engineering, I was always very interested in business as a force for economic change. Since my parents are college professors, I always knew I would pursue a doctorate. A few years into my engineering career, I realized that a Ph.D. in engineering was not the path for me. The questions I was interested in exploring related more to organizations and their impact on international markets.
After spending months researching MBA programs, I reached out to a mentor for advice—Dr. C. Fred Higgs, who, at the time, was an engineering professor at Carnegie Mellon. He heard my thoughts on wanting to study business and connected me with Dr. Jeffrey Robinson, an engineer turned business professor. Jeff willingly took my call and after learning that we are fraternity brothers, he became an instant mentor. I learned about The PhD Project from Jeff and decided to skip the MBA and pursue a Ph.D. in business because I already had a master’s degree in engineering.
Within three years, I enrolled in the management Ph.D. program at Morgan State University. My goal was to become a scholar in strategy and international business. During my second year in the program, I took a seminar course in entrepreneurship theory. That’s when everything changed. Up to that point, I understood entrepreneurship to be about taking an idea to market through a product or service. As I began to learn and gain exposure to the theoretical underpinnings of entrepreneurship research, I realized that all my varied interests began to connect. Everything changed for me that year from an academic perspective. I eventually decided to pursue social entrepreneurship as a research emphasis because it helped me make sense of the various approaches innovative people use to solve issues related to market failure (i.e. poverty, homelessness, health inequity).
Becoming an entrepreneurship scholar has enabled me to occupy a unique position in the field. I can leverage my technical acumen and years of engineering experience, coupled with my deep understanding of entrepreneurial phenomena at the individual and organizational levels. This not only offers benefits to my students while teaching but also to organizations seeking my consulting expertise on issues related to strategy and growth.
How did The PhD Project change the trajectory of your career?
I am forever indebted to The PhD Project! Through this organization, I learned what was possible in terms of an academic career in business. I started my career in computer engineering, so the idea of pursuing a doctorate in business was foreign to me. Little did I know that many business Ph.Ds. started in engineering.
Attending the 2009 annual conference was a dream come true. I saw so many people from diverse backgrounds who were in doctoral programs or serving on faculty. Being at the conference gave me the tools to understand the doctoral application process and the student journey. The PhD Project gave me a supportive family structure and network that helped me navigate and persevere through a difficult doctoral journey. Getting to personally connect with many accomplished academicians gave me the confidence to achieve my dream of becoming a business professor. Also, my dissertation chair (Dr. Christopher J. Mathis) and two committee members (Drs. Erica Anthony and SherRhonda Gibbs) are members of The PhD Project. Their guidance was pivotal to my doctoral journey,
Tell us how your Ph.D. degree has enabled you to give back to your community.
My Ph.D. degree enables me to lead inside and outside of the classroom. While I’ve engaged with thousands of students as a professor, my Ph.D. provided me with opportunities to lead local community and economic development efforts and engage with nonprofit, public, and private sector entities as a strategy consultant. Because of my Ph.D., I’ve been elevated from a professor to an awardwinning public servant.
Having a Ph.D. offers a level of credibility that may be otherwise difficult to attain. Based on my experience, a Ph.D. changes the way people engage with you, especially in traditional organizational settings. What I most appreciate about a Ph.D. is the mindset you develop as a researcher. I have been able to leverage this skill to understand people and problems in a way that enables me to be an agent of change in my community.
What work are you currently focused on? Please tell us about your new book “Black Boy Fly.”
Currently, I’m working on research projects with academic colleagues aimed at studying social and commercial entrepreneurs. Building upon my dissertation study, we’re collecting data to evaluate the role of compassion in the scaling of social impact. In addition to my faculty roles at Tennessee State University and Vanderbilt University, I support the Nashville mayor as his appointed liaison for small and minority business engagement.
