Peter is Professor of Organization & Management at Emory University and was the founding academic director of Social Enterprise @ Goizueta, now known as the Business & Society Institute at Goizueta Business School. He currently serves as the institute's Executive Academic Director. The institute is an academic research center that addresses complex challenges facing people and the planet through academic discovery and purposeful action.
His research interests relate to how the behavior and performance of organizations evolve over time. Currently, he directs his interests in entrepreneurship and organizational performance toward topics in the field of social enterprise. His current projects focus on social entrepreneurs and accelerators, on microbusiness development, and on the global specialty coffee industry.
For the past several years, he has been cultivating several programs which focus on making markets work for more people, in more places, in more ways. This led to the establishment of the global Entrepreneurship Database Program, the Start:ME accelerator program, and the Transparent Trade Coffee and Grounds for Empowerment programs.
Peter's PhD is from the University of Alberta. Before taking up his current position at Emory University, Peter served on the faculties of Columbia University, Carnegie Mellon University, and the Australian Graduate School of Management.
Education
University of Alberta
PhD
Organizational Analysis
1996
University of Alberta
MA
Economics
1989
Queen's University
BA
Economics
1988
Areas of Expertise
Micro-Business Development
Specialty Coffee
Entrepreneurship
Social Enterprise
Publications
Are We Accelerating Equity Investment Into Impact-Oriented Ventures
World Development
2020
To assess the effect of acceleration on outside equity investment, we analyze application and follow-up data from a matched sample of 1647 entrepreneurs who applied to 77 impact-oriented accelerators. Our main finding is promising. In the first follow-up year, accelerator program participants attract significantly more outside equity than their rejected counterparts. Further analysis suggests that this positive equity bump is not due to cherry picking obviously promising ventures during selection processes. Moreover, the effect is tied to the number of accelerated months in the follow-up year. Despite these promising observations, we find that the equity investment effect does not extend to ventures working in emerging markets, or to those with women on their founding teams. Thus, the benefits of accelerators for entrepreneurship-led development are not yet reaching the places and people that have the hardest time attracting capital on their own.
The Changing Effectiveness of Local Civic Action: The Critical Nexus of Community and Organization
Administrative Science Quarterly
2018
We examine changes in the effectiveness of local civic action in relation to changes over time in racial diversity and income inequality. Local civic action comprises situations in which community members come together—typically with support from local organizations—to address common issues. The collective orientation of local civic action makes it sensitive to changes in local social conditions. As these changes unfold, local organizations become differentially able to support civic action. Here, our core argument features the process through which community members associate with different local organizations and how mandated versus voluntary association results in distinct responses to increased social and economic heterogeneity. We test this argument using three decades of data describing local campaigns of the annual Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF program. A baseline model shows that within-county increases in racial diversity and income inequality are associated with diminished campaign effectiveness. Subsequent models that separate out campaigns organized by schools, churches, and clubs show that schools are relatively more effective mobilizers as racial diversity and income inequality increase, arguably due to the greater demographic matching that is induced by mandated school participation.
A Comparative Analysis of Corporate and Independent Foundations
Sociological Science
2015-12-15
Notwithstanding some visible debates, systematic evidence about the implications of greater corporate involvement in the social sector is sparse. We provide some of this evidence by examining one channel of corporate influence within the nonprofit sector–company sponsorship of philanthropic foundations. Our analysis shows that corporate foundations raise more funds and distribute grants with lower overhead than similar independent (i.e., non-corporate) foundations. However, their grantmaking is also more dispersed and less relational, and they tend to be governed by more ephemeral groups of officers and trustees. These findings suggest that corporate foundations benefit from having access to the resources of the companies that sponsor them but are constrained by their additional market-based motivations. The findings also update and refine what nonprofits might expect from corporate foundations relative to their more traditional independent counterparts.
The Profit Orientation of Microfinance Institutions and Effective Interest Rates
World Development
2013
With the rise in the number of for-profit microfinance institutions (MFIs), commentators are asking whether the sector benefits by MFIs having stronger profit orientations. We address this question by analyzing the relationship between interest rates and adopting the for-profit legal form, appointing private sector representation and traditional banking experience to advisory boards, and participating in more extensive for-profit networks. The results consistently indicate that a stronger for-profit orientation corresponds with higher interest rates for MFI clients. However, this does not contribute to greater profitability and therefore sustainability because the stronger profit orientation is also associated with higher MFI costs.
Corporate reputation and sustained superior financial performance
Strategic Management Journal
2002
Good corporate reputations are critical because of their potential for value creation, but also because their intangible character makes replication by competing firms considerably more difficult. Existing empirical research confirms that there is a positive relationship between reputation and financial performance. This paper complements these findings by showing that firms with relatively good reputations are better able to sustain superior profit outcomes over time. In particular, we undertake an analysis of the relationship between corporate reputation and the dynamics of financial performance using two complementary dynamic models. We also decompose overall reputation into a component that is predicted by previous financial performance, and that which is ‘left over’, and find that each (orthogonal) element supports the persistence of above-average profits over time.
Friendships among Competitors in the Sydney Hotel Industry
American Journal of Sociology
2000
Friendships with competitors can improve the performance of organizations through the mechanisms of enhanced collaboration, mitigated competition, and better information exchange. Moreover, these benefits are best achieved when competing managers are embedded in a cohesive network of friendships (i.e., one with many friendships among competitors), since cohesion facilitates the verification of information culled from the network, eliminates the structural holes faced by customers, and facilitates the normative control of competitors. The first part of this analysis examines the performance implications of the friendship‐network structure within the Sydney hotel industry, with performance being the yield (i.e., revenue per available room) of a given hotel. This shows that friendships with competitors lead to dramatic improvements in hotel yields. Performance is further improved if a manager’s competitors are themselves friends, evidencing the benefit of cohesive friendship networks. The second part of the analysis examines the structure of friendship ties among hotel managers and shows that friendships are more likely between managers who are competitors.
Debate continues as to whether corporate or independent foundations are more impactful, despite the shared interest in supporting charitable services. In research from Justin Koushyar, doctoral candidate in organization and management (2017), Wesley Longhofer, assistant professor of organization and management, and Peter Roberts, professor of organization and management, the trio determines that the answer is mixed. They used data from a matched random sample of corporate and independent foundations that operated across the United States in 2005 and 2009. With deeper pockets, corporate foundations were able to raise more funds than their nonprofit counterparts. Company sponsorship of a philanthropic foundation also meant that they could operate with lower overhead. However, Koushyar, Longhofer, and Roberts found that corporate foundations are “more dispersed and less relational, and they tend to be governed by more ephemeral groups of officers and trustees.” Simply put, corporate foundations have fewer longterm attachments to the charitable organizations they support. Additionally, “market-based motivations” may influence how they give. Corporate foundations do tend to provide smaller individual grant amounts than independent foundations. These “stakeholder effects” are even more dramatic for the foundations linked to larger publicly traded companies.
Source:
In the News
The story behind the rise in coffee prices worldwide
The World
2024-12-13
Climate change is a challenge for farmers everywhere. That includes coffee farmers. But climate change alone doesn’t explain the current uptick in prices. There’s another force at play. Peter Roberts, an academic director of specialty coffee programs at the Business and Society Institute at Emory University, helps demystify what’s happening in the market.
What does the term "ethical coffee" actually mean?
Salon online
2021-07-19
"How many sellers of roasted coffee will ever say, 'This coffee was not purchased on ethical terms?'" says Peter Roberts, a business professor at Emory University and the founder of a pricing-equity initiative called the Specialty Coffee Transaction Guide. "If sellers want to brag, they will showcase a label indicating that others (e.g., certifiers) approve. But, how often do we hear, for instance, that fair trade prices are 'not fair?'"
New Report Analyzes COVID-19’s Effect on Specialty-Coffee Purchases
Barista Magazine online
2021-04-16
“To uphold our goal of improving and balancing the information environment related to how specialty coffee is transacted, it is critical that we share these insights with the marketplace of specialty-coffee sellers and buyers so that they, in their own ways, can optimize a challenging situation,” says Chad Trewick of Reciprocafé LLC, who worked with Peter W. Roberts of Transparent Trade Coffee, housed at Emory University, to produce both the report and the three Specialty Coffee Transaction Guides.
'Structural and systemic' issues: Metro Atlanta's wealthy ZIP codes received the most PPP loans
Atlanta Business Chronicle online
2020-08-21
Of the top 10 ZIP codes approved for the most PPP loans, six of them are among Atlanta's wealthiest. The disparities in loan disbursement stem from a deeply rooted problem.
The COVID-19 Pandemic Will Only Make the Price Crisis Worse
Daily Coffee News online
2020-04-01
The COVID-19 pandemic is a genuine global health crisis that deserves all the world’s current attention and sacrifice. However, the rapid emergence of this global crisis does not make the coffee price crisis go away. For many people and businesses, it simply puts it out of focus.
Social Impact Accelerators Drive Revenue Growth Among Just A Small Portion Of Ventures
Forbes online
2019-07-31
Just how well are impact accelerators performing globally? Are they benefiting social enterprises or not? The answer, according to a new book, is they’re helpful in growing ventures’ revenues. But only a small portion of entrepreneurs enrolled in these programs experience growth. And to be successful, accelerators have to adapt their structures to the local entrepreneurial environment, especially in emerging markets.
Another Giant Step for Transparency with the 2018 Specialty Coffee Transaction Guide
Daily Coffee News online
2019-01-10
The team at Emory University-based Transparent Trade Coffee has released the first version of its “Specialty Coffee Transaction Guide,” designed as a price discovery tool for both buyers and sellers of specialty-grade green coffee.
Green Coffee Pricing Transparency Is Critical (And Complicated)
Perfect Daily Grind online
2018-04-19
There are real concerns about the future of specialty coffee. And one of the most pressing is the incredibly low incomes earned by coffee producers. Yet it is one thing to recognize that green specialty coffee prices need to be higher. It is another to determine appropriate prices. Doing so requires greater pricing transparency, something that some specialty roasters are working towards. However, there are several challenges in the way of its widespread adoption. Allow me to discuss them – along with five actions that will make pricing transparency more attractive and feasible for roasters as well as producers.
In the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, the idea of stimulating entrepreneurship in order to expand economic opportunity has become increasingly popular. Although these conversations tend to focus on companies that aspire to become national or global players, we must not overlook the aggregate contributions of microbusinesses—those with fewer than five employees.
Startup Accelerators Have Become More Popular in Emerging Markets — and They’re Working
Harvard Business Review online
2017-10-02
Much like their famed Silicon Valley counterparts, emerging market accelerators aim to boost startups’ potential for raising growth capital. Though the rates of acceleration are similar across countries, potential cultural bias may limit positive effects.
Despite consumer demand for specialty or gourmet coffee surging over the past few years, the price that growers receive in most cases have been a fraction of that.
New insights on what makes emerging market entrepreneurship accelerators work
Devex online
2016-03-28
It kind of goes against the notion of value added,” said report co-author Peter Roberts, a professor and the academic director of social enterprise at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School. He said it may be a challenge for accelerators to accept that they are still doing their jobs even if they are not filling every minute with programming.
How can coffee become a better tool for development?
Devex online
2016-01-28
With the fair trade movement at a crossroads, coffee roasters and retailers are looking at alternatives to trace the source of their beans — from adopting other certifications or developing programs of their own. Devex takes a look at how the development community can best support the approaches that best serve coffee farmers.
"Consumer demand for better-tasting coffee is splitting the coffee market in two.
A growing number of coffee roasters that deal in small farm-produced and best-flavored coffees are leaving the traditional, and more volatile, futures market, which they say has become so disconnected from their business models that it is no longer useful to manage risk.”
Randall Kempner and Peter Roberts: Aren’t Accelerators Great? Maybe…
The Accelerators: Wall Street Journal Blog online
2015-04-10
"We often get asked certain questions about accelerator programs: Do they contribute to revenue growth? Do they help companies attract investment? Do they work as well for developing-world impact entrepreneurs as they do for developed-world tech entrepreneurs? But, unfortunately, the only credible answer we have right now is: 'No one really knows.’”
Why the pandemic hit Georgia's Asian-owned businesses especially hard | FOX 5 Atlanta
FOX 5 Atlanta online
2021-03-09
Sections of Buford Highway have transformed into a revolving door for small businesses, as owners struggle to survive the pandemic’s financial hit. Ching Hsia’s family dipped into their personal savings to keep their longtime Chinese restaurant afloat.
What does the term "ethical coffee" actually mean? - Salon.com
Salon online
2021-07-19
Roasted Coffee Beans In Sack (Getty Images/Dawid Garwol) This article is part of Salon Food's "Coffee Week," a series of stories about America's favorite caffeinated beverage. For many people, coffee is the ultimate escape — a comforting cup to sink into, a few minutes’ break from work, the date before you decide whether you want to date.
