From Supply and Demand to Numbers, Networks, and Narratives

This book poses an important question for economic sociologists: as expanding specialty coffee markets call for higher-quality coffees produced and transacted in certain ways, why is there not a widespread expectation that the producers who grow these differentiated coffees should receive prices that are commensurate with the economic value they create? Moving past an overly simple economics, Roberts does not accept that problematic specialty coffee pricing is the direct result of ongoing problems with global supply and demand. The real problems are that the people who grow differentiated specialty coffees do not have access to relevant price information and that they have outdated market connections. These numbers and networks problems are exacerbated by a more fundamental problem. Conversations about the value of green specialty coffees remain rooted in an outdated pricing narrative that features global scarcity rather than quality-based differentiation. Roberts outlines a mosaic of promising market interventions that address the numbers and networks problems before explaining why the outdated pricing narrative is so difficult to change. He concludes by offering specific motivations for researchers to explore valuation and pricing in specialty coffee markets. As economists, sociologists, and especially economic sociologists take the coffee industry more seriously, they will turn untrodden research pathways into action-oriented ideas that will transform the global coffee industry by changing how people think and talk about them.

Peter W. Roberts is Professor of Organization & Management at Emory University and Academic Director of its Business & Society Institute. Over the past several years, he has directed his research and teaching efforts toward questions related to the global coffee industry. 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.