Dr. H. Christopher (Chris) Peterson is the Homer Nowlin Chair of Consumer-Responsive Agriculture and professor of Agricultural, Food and Resource Economics at Michigan State University. He is Director of the MSU Product Center for Agriculture and Natural Resources. The Center focuses on assisting agricultural, food, natural resource, and bioeconomy firms in the development of new markets, products, and associated supply chain relationships. Dr. Peterson has his Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics from Cornell University and his MBA from the Harvard University Graduate School of Business. Dr. Peterson is the outside director on the board of Michigan Sugar Company. He serves on the state advisory board for the Michigan Small Business and Technology Development Centers, the Executive Committee of the Sustainable Michigan Endowed Project and the international advisory board of TransForum, a public/private consortium dedicated to scientific and practical discoveries to enhance the sustainable of agriculture in the Netherlands and globally.
His research and outreach activities span the areas of strategic management, value-added ventures and differentiated product development, cooperative theory and financial practices, entrepreneurship, business innovation, the emergence of the bioeconomy, vertical coordination strategy, and supply chain management. Dr. Peterson also does “futuring” to craft scenarios for the evolution of the agri-food and bioeconomy systems. Based on this work, sustainability is a growing area for his research and outreach. Rounding out his scholarly interests is a focus on qualitative research methods, most especially case study research.
Professional Interests
- Strategic management of agribusinesses, including globalization strategies, supply chain management, social capital, cooperative finance, scenario analysis, and strategic planning methods and practices
- Product-oriented agricultural marketing, and cooperative strategic and financial management
Selected Publications
Conner, David S., Knudson, William A., Hamm, Michael W., Peterson, Christopher. 2009. The Food System as an Economic Driver: Strategies and Results in Michigan. Journal of Hunger & Environmental Nutrition 3 (4): 371-383.
Dentoni, Domenico, Peterson, Christopher, Tonsor, Glyndall T., Calatone, Roger J. 2009. The Direct and Indirect Effects of "Locally Grown" on Consumer's Attitudes Towards Agri-Food Products. Agricultural and Resource Economics Review 83 (3): 384-396.
Peterson, Christopher. 2009. Transformational supply chains and the 'wicked problem' of sustainability: aligning knowledge, innovation, entrepreneurship, and leadership. Journal on Chain and Network Science 9 (2): 71-82.
Jones, K., Raper, C., Whipple, J., Mollenkopf, D., Peterson, C. 2007. Commodity-Procurement Strategies of Food Companies: A Case Study. Journal of Food Distribution Research, 23(3), 37-53.
Peterson, H.C. and Weatherspoon, D.D. 2001. The Role of Scientific and Business Inetegrity in the Future of Biotechnology: A Scenario Analysis. Staff Paper 2001-17. Department of Agricultural Economics, Michigan State University
Peterson, H.C. 2000. Four Possible Scenarios for Michigan Agriculture. Video, Michigan State University.
Russo, C., Weatherspoon, D., Peterson, H.C. 2000. Members' Financial Evaluation and Cooperatives' Decision Process. Staff Paper 2000-08. Department of Agricultural Economics, Michigan State University.
Funded Research Projects
- MAES/GREEEN Development of Agri-Food Strategy Center and Strategic Information Resources
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