Robert Wardrop

I'm an economic sociologist and the Executive Director of the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance, where I am responsible for leading a team of researchers studying the evolution of alternative financial instruments & online channels, alternative investment & credit analytics using new forms of data, and alternative payment systems and cryptocurrencies. I also teach the Mergers & Acquisitions, New Venture Finance and Alternative Channels of Finance courses in the Master of Finance and MBA programmes in the Cambridge Judge Business School.

My main research interest is exploring how social relations influence financial decision-making, particularly in relation to the decisions made by the investors, lenders, and owners of firms. I retrained as a social scientist by undertaking advanced degrees in social & cognitive anthropology and economic sociology after 30 years of investing in, and lending to, small and mid-sized firms. Over the course of my professional career, I observed that several different motivations can influence the decisions of owners and managers while their firms are experiencing financial stress which, in turn, produced different financial outcomes for investors and creditors. Traditional approaches to analysing the creditworthiness of firms typically exclude factors that can predict these motivations, which suggests that the predictive power of investment and credit rating models can be increased by incorporating forms of social relationship data.

I'm also interested in innovation, both in the finance industry and in the broader economy. In addition to my academic role, I have a portfolio of senior advisory and board-level positions and occasionally make investments in promising early-stage companies led by talented entrepreneurs.

Professional experience

Bob is an economic sociologist interested in understanding how and why channels and instruments of finance emerge outside the traditional financial system and how this impacts regulators, incumbent financial institutions and consumers. In addition to his role in the School, Bob is a member of the Steering Committee for the Cambridge Centre for Data-Driven Discovery (C2D3), an interdisciplinary research centre at Cambridge bringing together expertise from across academic departments and industry to drive research into the analysis, understanding, and use of big data.

Prior to pursuing his academic career in 2010, Bob had an international career as a professional investor, most recently as a Managing Director in the investment group of one of the largest privately-owned companies in the United States where he was responsible for a portfolio of European corporate debt and equity investments. He has held several board directorships and advisory roles with academic, governmental and commercial organisations over the course of both his academic and non-academic career.

Awards & honours

• Cambridge Judge Business School Teaching Award, 2022

Selected publications

Wardrop, R., Rau, R. and Zingales, L. (eds.) (2021) The Palgrave handbook of technological finance. Houndsmill: Palgrave Macmillan.

Zhang, B., Rowan, P., Wardrop, R. et al (2018) Early lessons on regulatory innovation to enable inclusive fintech. Cambridge: Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance.

Zhang, B., Wardrop, R., Garvey, K. et al (2017) The Africa and Middle East alternative finance benchmarking report. Cambridge: Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance.

Wardrop, R. and Ziegler, T. (2016) “A case of regulatory evolution: a review of the UK Financial Conduct Authority’s approach to crowdfunding.” CESifo DICE Report, 14(2): 23-32

Wardrop, R., Rosenberg, R., Zhang, B. et al (2016) Breaking new ground: the Americas alternative finance benchmarking report. Cambridge: Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance.

Zhang, B., Deer, L. Wardrop, B. et al (2016) Harnessing potential: the Asia-Pacific alternative finance benchmarking report. Cambridge: Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance.