Peter Thompson

Peter Thompson is a Professor and the Hal and John Smith Chair in Small Business and Entrepreneurship at the Scheller College of Business, Georgia Institute of Technology. He has previously held faculty positions at Emory University, Florida International University, Carnegie Mellon University, and the University of Houston, reflecting a distinguished academic career in economics and strategy.

Education:

• Ph.D. in Food and Resource Economics, University of Florida, 1993
• M.Sc. in Agricultural Economics, University of East Anglia (UK), 1985
• B.Sc. in Agricultural Economics, University of Reading (UK), 1984

Thompson's research centers on entrepreneurship, organizational learning, technological change, and industry evolution. His work integrates theoretical and empirical approaches to understand how firms learn, innovate, and evolve over time. He has made significant contributions to the economics of technical change, particularly in learning-by-doing, knowledge spillovers, and endogenous growth theory. His studies often draw on historical and contemporary industry data, especially from shipbuilding and innovation sectors.

His recent publications reveal a consistent focus on learning dynamics, firm survival, and innovation diffusion, with methodological rigor across economics and management science. Topics include organizational forgetting, patent citations, labor market frictions in self-employment, and the microfoundations of growth models.

Scientific Awards and Honors:

• Hal and John Smith Chair in Small Business and Entrepreneurship

Editorial and Professional Activities: Associate Editor, Management Science; Editorial Board, Journal of Evolutionary Economics. He has taught economics at the Ph.D., MBA, and undergraduate levels and is actively involved in the Roundtable for Engineering Entrepreneurship Research (REER), a leading forum for interdisciplinary entrepreneurship scholarship. His research has been supported by long-term engagement in academic networks and editorial leadership.

Thompson is affiliated with research communities focused on evolutionary economics, innovation policy, and strategic management, contributing to both theoretical advances and practical insights for entrepreneurship and firm strategy.