David Teece

David J. Teece
CNZM
Born (1948-09-02) September 2, 1948 (age 78)
Blenheim, New Zealand
EducationUniversity of Canterbury, MCom
University of Pennsylvania, MA, PhD
Scientific career
FieldsCorporate Strategy, entrepreneurship, innovation, international management, competition policy
WorkplacesBerkeley Research Group
University of California, Berkeley Haas School of Business
Edwin Mansfield
Websitewww.davidjteece.com

David John Teece (born September 2, 1948) is a New Zealand-born US-based organizational economist who is a professor of the graduate school and director of the Tusher Center for the Management of Intellectual Capital at the Walter A. Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley. As of 2024, he is a Distinguished Scholar of Strategy and Innovation at the University of South Florida Muma College of Business. He is known for his "Dynamic Capabilities" framework and "Profiting from Innovation" model.

Teece is the cofounder of Berkeley Research Group, an expert services and consulting firm headquartered in Washington, DC. His areas of interest include corporate strategy, entrepreneurship, innovation, competition policy, and intellectual property.

In 2021, Teece was awarded Clarivate Laureate status in Economics for his contributions to innovation, entrepreneurship, and competition. As of 2026, Teece’s published work has been cited more than 280,000 times according to Google Scholar.

Early life and education

Teece grew up in Blenheim and Nelson, New Zealand and attended Waimea College before enrolling in 1967 at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, where he earned a bachelor's degree and a Master of Commerce.

He moved to the United States to attend the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, from which he received a Ph.D. in economics, specializing in industrial economics, international trade, and technological innovation. Two members of the economics faculty had a particular influence on his research that he later acknowledged in articles he wrote in tribute to each of them: Edwin Mansfield, a pioneer in the study of industrial R&D and the economics of technological change; and Oliver Williamson, Nobel Laureate and creator of Transaction Cost Economics.

Career

Teece taught at Stanford Graduate School of Business from 1975 until 1982, when he was hired by the Haas School of Business at U.C. Berkeley, where he is a chaired professor. He has published more than 200 academic articles and more than a dozen books. He co-founded and serves on the editorial board of three academic journals, Industrial & Corporate Change (Oxford University Press), Russian Management Journal, and the Journal of Dynamic Competition. He is also the executive director of Berkeley Policy Institute, a nonprofit research organization.

Personal life

After the 2011 Christchurch earthquake, Teece offered a substantial donation to the city for earthquake recovery. The money was used by his former university to install the classics and music school in the Old Chemistry building at the Christchurch Arts Centre. In 2017, 40 years after its move from the Christchurch Central City to the Ilam campus, the University of Canterbury returned to its original home, and opened The Teece Museum of Classical Antiques in May 2017. The Townsend Teece restored telescope has been restored for placement in the university's observatory in Christchurch.

Teece resides in Florida.

Research areas

Capturing value from innovation

Teece has made contributions to the study of innovation. Teece's 1986 paper "Profiting from Technological Innovation" was selected by the editors as one of the best papers published in Research Policy from 1971 to 1991 and is the most cited paper published in the publication. In October 2006, Research Policy published a special issue commemorating the twentieth anniversary of the original article.

In this series of papers, Teece explained why innovative firms often fail to capture economic returns from their invention. He described how it is sometimes more important for a business to be able to win at marketing, distribution, manufacturing, and other complementary areas than to come up with a big idea in the first place. He identified the factors which determine whether the firm that wins from innovation is the firm that is first to market, a follower firm, or a firm that has related capabilities that the innovation requires to provide value to a customer. The key elements in what has been called the Teece Model are the imitability of the innovation (how easily competitors can copy it) and the ownership of complementary assets. Sidney Winter has argued that Teece's paper contributes "en passant but fundamentally, to the clarification of basic questions."

Dynamic capabilities

Teece wrote the first paper on dynamic capabilities, an economics approach to the theory of the firm. Dynamic capabilities have been defined as "the ability to integrate, build, and reconfigure internal and external competencies to address rapidly changing environments".

According to ScienceWatch, his paper with Gary Pisano and Amy Shuen, "Dynamic Capabilities and Strategic Management", was the most cited paper in economics and business globally for the period from 1995 to 2005.

Teece's concept of dynamic capabilities is a theory about the foundations of competitive advantage: "the capacity (1) to sense and shape opportunities and threats, (2) to seize opportunities, and (3) to maintain competitiveness through enhancing, combining, protecting, and, when necessary, reconfiguring the business enterprise's intangible and tangible assets."

Theory of the multiproduct firm

Roberts and Saloner (2013) credit Teece with "the first attempt to build a systematic theory of the firm scope based on profit-maximizing behavior" in his 1982 article "Towards an Economic Theory of the Multiproduct Firm," in which Teece describes the existence of excess resources in firms, stating that firms could better use those resources by diversifying into new lines of business. He also presents transaction cost arguments regarding whether resources can be shared contractually, and explains that protecting those resources is a potential basis for diversification. Teece additionally builds on Williamson (1975) in arguing that "internal capital allocation may be better than what the market can achieve".

Dynamic competition

For over three decades Teece has criticized antitrust and competition economics for its failure to consider the power of innovation driven broad spectrum dynamic competition. Teece tweaks the sources of economic rents down more finely, and believes Schumpeterian and Ricardian rents are generally benign from an antitrust perspective. This is seen to be "a very valuable insight" that is counter to traditional antitrust enforcement. He is recognized for persistently alerting regulatory bodies to the different nature of competition in the innovation economy compared to the industrial economy. As of 2026, Teece is the co-editor of the Journal of Dynamic Competition.

Panmure House Declaration

Teece invited and organized the "New Enlightenment Conference" in Panmure House, the original home of Adam Smith in Edinburgh, Scotland, July 2019. The conference participants signed the Panmure House Declaration, "the first major pronouncement from Adam Smith's home since 1790." It called for a stronger commitment to Adam Smith's values of economic freedom and a rule-of-law democracy, and the pursuit of the common good. Teece became the inaugural Adam Smith scholar in residence in Panmure House.

Honors

Teece holds nine honorary doctorates: Saint Petersburg State University (Russia, 2000), where he was honored for his role in co-founding the business school; Copenhagen Business School (Denmark, 2004); Lappeenranta University of Technology (Finland, 2004); University of Canterbury (New Zealand, 2007);University of Calgary (Canada, 2015); Kaunas University of Technology (Lithuania, 2016); European Business School (Germany, 2016); Edinburgh Business School (United Kingdom, 2017); Keio University (Japan, 2023). He is also an honorary professor at China's Zhongnan University of Economics and Law and King Saud University in Saudi Arabia and an Honorary Member of the Law and Economics Association of New Zealand. In 2002, Accenture listed Teece among its Top 50 Business Intellectuals. In 2003, Lappeenranta University presented Teece with the first Viipuri International Prize in Strategic (Technology) Management and Business Economics.

A 2008 analysis by Thomson Scientific found him to be one of the top-10 most-cited scholars in economics and business from 1997 to 2007.

In 2011 he received the Herbert Simon award from Laszlo College for Advanced Studies, Corvinus University of Budapest. A 2011 article, "Innovation in Multi-Invention Contexts," coauthored with Deepak Somaya and Simon Wakeman, was selected as the winner of the 2012 California Management Review Best Article Award.

In the 2013 New Year Honours, Teece was appointed a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to New Zealand–United States relations. He also received the Academy of International Business Eminent Scholar Award in Istanbul in July 2013. Teece is described as a " 'leading authority' on matters related to antitrust and competition policy and intellectual property stating and is 'highly sought after.'"

In 2016, the New Zealand Association of Economists awarded him as Distinguished Fellow, "renowned for his research on industrial organisation, technological change and innovation, particularly as it relates to competition policy and intellectual property."

In 2018, the Strategic Management Society awarded him the CK Prahalad Distinguished Scholar-Practitioner Award and classified him as "a renowned academic, a prolific author, an active consultant, serial entrepreneur, angel investor and CEO mentor."

In 2020 he was ranked as the world's most-cited scholar in the combined field of business and management in an analysis of science-wide author citations published in PLOS Biology, a peer-reviewed journal. He was also inducted into the Thinkers50 Hall of Fame.

In 2022, Teece was elected an honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand.

Political views

Teece has not publicly stated his political views, though he chaired Californians for a Balanced Budget and Better Economy, a PAC that supported Tom Campbell's 2012 run for U.S. Senate.

His largest political donation was $500,000 to Californians for a Balanced Budget and Better Economy. In recent election cycles he has donated to several Republican senators' campaigns, including Susan Collins, Mitt Romney, Tom Cotton, Lisa Murkowski, and Dan Sullivan.

Selected publications

References

  1. ↑ "Haas Launches Tusher Center to Study Intellectual Capital Management". University of California, Berkeley. August 14, 2015. Retrieved August 20, 2015.
  2. 1 2 Brown, Elizabeth L. (December 17, 2024). "Scholar-entrepreneur David Teece joins USF Muma College of Business". University of South Florida. Retrieved December 24, 2024.
  3. 1 2 3 "Entrepreneur Profile David Teece co-founder, Berkeley Research Group LLC". San Francisco Business Times. February 18, 2011. Retrieved January 26, 2012.
  4. 1 2 "David J. Teece: Executive Chairman". Berkeley Research Group. Retrieved December 24, 2024.
  5. ↑ "Locations | BRG". www.thinkbrg.com. Retrieved February 26, 2026.
  6. ↑ "David Teece Faculty Profile". Archived from the original on September 18, 2012.
  7. ↑ "Clarivate Unveils Citation Laureates 2021 - Annual List of Researchers of Nobel Class". ir.clarivate.com. Retrieved May 29, 2026.
  8. 1 2 |title=David J. Teece |url=https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=qIIT8eYAAAAJ&hl=en |access-date=2026-05-29 |website=scholar.google.com
  9. 1 2 3 4 Brenneman, Richard (August 6, 2004). "David Teece: Big Building Backer, Academic Guru, Political Power Player and a Corporate Tycoon". The Berkeley Daily Planet. Retrieved January 27, 2012.
  10. ↑ "David J. Teece Berkeley Research Group Profile". Retrieved December 1, 2012.
  11. 1 2 Hughes, Samuel (March–April 2005). "All Business". The Pennsylvania Gazette. Retrieved January 26, 2012.
  12. ↑ Teece, David J. (January 2005). "Technology and Technology Transfer: Mansfieldian Inspirations and Subsequent Developments". Journal of Technology Transfer. 30 (1/2): 17–33. doi:10.1007/s10961-004-4355-x. S2CID 189871541.
  13. ↑ Teece, David J. (Winter 2010). "Williamson's Impact on the Theory and Practice of Management". California Management Review. 52 (2): 167–176. doi:10.1525/cmr.2010.52.2.167. S2CID 153372058.
  14. ↑ Anders, George (March 19, 2007). "An Economist's Courtroom Bonanza: Whether It's Mötley Crüe or Antitrust Law, Berkeley's David Teece Is Ready to Testify". The Wall Street Journal. pp. A1.
  15. ↑ "Russian Management Journal". Graduate School of Management, St. Petersburg University. St. Petersburg University. Retrieved October 18, 2026.
  16. ↑ "Journal of Dynamic Competition (JDC)". World Scientific Publishing. Retrieved May 27, 2026.
  17. ↑ "About Berkeley Policy Institute". Berkeley Policy Institute. Retrieved December 24, 2024.
  18. ↑ Redmond, Adele (May 20, 2017). "Student sounds return to city". The Press. p. A7. Retrieved May 20, 2017.
  19. ↑ Introduction to the Research Policy 20th anniversary special issue of the publication of "Profiting from Innovation" by David J. Teece, by editors Henry Chesbrough, Julian Birkinshaw,  and Morris Teubal, Research Policy, Volume 35, Issue 8, October 2006, Pages 1091-1099.
  20. ↑ Bean, A.S.; Callon, M.; Coenen, R.; Freeman, C.; Meyer-Krahmer, F.; Pavitt, K.L.R.; Roessner, D.; Utterback, J.M. (April 1993). "Introductory Note". Research Policy. 22 (2): 99. doi:10.1016/0048-7333(93)90036-h.
  21. ↑ "Research of David J. Teece, Key Research Topic: Profiting from Technological Innovation". University of California, Berkeley. Retrieved June 11, 2012.
  22. ↑ Chesbrough, Henry; Birkinshaw, Julian; Teubal, Morris (October 2006). "Introduction to the research policy 20th anniversary special issue of the publication of "Profiting from Innovation" by David J. Teece". Research Policy. 35 (8): 1091–1099. doi:10.1016/j.respol.2006.09.001.
  23. ↑ "Special issue commemorating the 20th Anniversary of David Teece's article, "Profiting from Innovation", in Research Policy". Research Policy. 35 (8). October 2006. Retrieved June 11, 2012.
  24. ↑ Anders, George (May 2, 2012). "Google and Facebook Dead in 5 Years? Fat Chance!". Forbes.com. Retrieved June 11, 2012.
  25. ↑ Teece, David J. (December 1986). "Profiting from Technological Innovation: Implications for integration, collaboration, licensing and public policy". Research Policy. 15 (6): 285–305. doi:10.1016/0048-7333(86)90027-2.
  26. ↑ Scocco, Daniel (August 24, 2006). "The Teece Model". Innovation Zen. Retrieved May 2, 2016.
  27. ↑ Afuah, Allan N., and Kwaku O. Prakah-Asante (2010). "Innovation Models." In V.K. Narayanan and Gina Colarelli O'Connor (eds.), Encyclopedia of Technology & Innovation Management, p. 107. John Wiley & Sons.
  28. ↑ Winter, Sidney (October 2006). "The Logic of Appropriability: From Schumpeter to Arrow to Teece" (PDF). Research Policy. 35 (8): 1100–1106. doi:10.1016/j.respol.2006.09.010. hdl:10419/89518.
  29. ↑ Teece, David J.; Pisano, Gary; Shuen, Amy (August 1997). "Dynamic Capabilities and Strategic Management" (PDF). Strategic Management Journal. 18 (7): 509–533. doi:10.1002/(sici)1097-0266(199708)18:7<509::aid-smj882>3.0.co;2-z. S2CID 167484845. Archived from the original (PDF) on November 24, 2011.
  30. ↑ Cordes-Berszinn, Philip (November 2013). Dynamic Capabilities: How Organisational Structures Affect Knowledge Processes. Palgrave Macmillan. Archived from the original on December 8, 2017. Retrieved September 16, 2014.
  31. ↑ "Taking Care of Business, 1995–2005". ScienceWatch. Thomson Scientific. November–December 2005. Retrieved January 26, 2012.
  32. ↑ Teece, David J. (August 2007). "Explicating Dynamic Capabilities: The Nature and Microfoundations of (Sustainable) Enterprise Performance". Strategic Management Journal. 28 (13): 1319–1350. doi:10.1002/smj.640.
  33. ↑ Roberts, John; Saloner, Garth (2013). Gibbons, Robert; Roberts, John (eds.). The Handbook of Organizational Economics. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. pp. 799–852.
  34. ↑ Teece, David (1982). "Towards an Economic Theory of the Multiproduct Firm". Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization. 3: 39–63. doi:10.1016/0167-2681(82)90003-8.
  35. ↑ Williamson, Oliver (1975). Markets and Hierarchies: Analysis and Antitrust Implications. New York: Free Press. ISBN 978-0-02-935360-8.
  36. ↑ cite journal | last1 = Teece | first1 = David J. | title = Towards an Economic Theory of the Multiproduct Firm | journal = Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization | volume = 3 | issue = 1 | pages = 39–63 | year = 1982 | doi = 10.1016/0167-2681(82)90001-X
  37. ↑ Teece, David J.; Coleman, Mary (September 1, 1998). "The Meaning of Monopoly: Antitrust Analysis in High-Technology Industries". The Antitrust Bulletin. 43 (3–4): 801–857. doi:10.1177/0003603X9804303-406. ISSN 0003-603X. S2CID 156165128.
  38. ↑ "Innovation and the Law:  The Contributions of David Teece" Tom Campbell, Dean of the Haas School of Business Research Policy Conference: 20th Anniversary of the Publication of Profiting from Technological Innovation Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley September 21, 2006
  39. ↑ Campbell op cit
  40. ↑ "Understanding Dynamic Competition: New Perspectives on Potential Competition, "Monopoly," and Market Power". www.americanbar.org. Retrieved September 25, 2025.
  41. ↑ "Journal of Dynamic Competition (JDC)". JDC Editorial Board. Retrieved March 31, 2026.
  42. ↑ Kemp, Kenny (July 4, 2019). "Economists sign Panmure House declaration". insider.co.uk.
  43. ↑ "First Panmure House declaration calls for stronger commitment to Adam Smith's values of democracy and freedom". July 9, 2019.
  44. ↑ "The New Enlightenment: A Call to Arms at Adam Smith's Panmure House". June 26, 2019.
  45. ↑ "Professor David Teece - Bio". www.ifm.eng.cam.ac.uk. Retrieved September 16, 2025.
  46. ↑ "100 Years of Scholarship". California Magazine. May 2007. Retrieved August 20, 2015.
  47. ↑ "Honorary Graduates" (PDF). University of Canterbury. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 4, 2015. Retrieved June 14, 2014.
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  49. 1 2 3 "Professional Awards for David J. Teece". University of California Berkeley Haas School of Business. Retrieved January 26, 2012.
  50. ↑ "Professor David J. Teece Conferred Doctorate Honoris Causa, Delivers Commemorative Lecture and Symposium | Keio University". www.keio.ac.jp. Retrieved May 27, 2026.
  51. 1 2 admin (July 1, 2016). "David Teece awarded Distinguished Fellow of NZAE". NZAE : New Zealand Association of Economists. Retrieved May 27, 2026.
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  53. ↑ "The Viipuri Prize". Lappeenranta University of Technology. Archived from the original on April 5, 2012. Retrieved June 11, 2012.
  54. ↑ "Scientist Rankings in Economics and Business Based on Total Citations" (PDF). Essential Science Indicators, January 1, 1997 – October 31, 2007. Thomson Scientific. Archived from the original (PDF) on January 5, 2011. Retrieved January 26, 2012.
  55. ↑ "Herbert Simon awardees". Archived from the original on February 23, 2020.
  56. ↑ Somaya, Deepak; Teece, David; Wakeman, Simon (Summer 2011). "Innovation in Multi-Invention Contexts: Mapping Solutions to Technological and Intellectual Property Complexity" (PDF). California Management Review. 53 (4): 47–74. doi:10.1525/cmr.2011.53.4.47. S2CID 154480815. Archived from the original (PDF) on February 3, 2013.
  57. ↑ "The 2012 Best Article Award". California Management Review. Archived from the original on June 1, 2012. Retrieved June 11, 2012.
  58. ↑ "New Year honours list 2013". Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. December 31, 2012. Retrieved January 9, 2018.
  59. ↑ "AIB Fellows Eminent Scholar Award Session: Honoring David Teece". Academy of International Business. July 4, 2013. Archived from the original on February 21, 2014. Retrieved January 25, 2014.
  60. ↑ "Who's Who Legal Most Highly Regarded Firms: Arbitration Expert Witnesses 2014". October 2013. Retrieved January 26, 2014.
  61. ↑ "CK Prahalad Distinguished Scholar-Practitioner Award". Strategic Management Society. Summer 2018. Retrieved August 30, 2018.
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  63. ↑ Counts, Laura (November 10, 2020). "Ranking puts Prof. Teece as top-cited scholar in business; Prof. Levine #10 in economics". Haas News | UC Berkeley Haas. Retrieved May 29, 2026.
  64. ↑ "Prof. David Teece Inducted into Thinkers50 Hall of Fame". September 18, 2020.
  65. ↑ "View our fellows". Royal Society Te Apārangi. Retrieved August 31, 2023.
  66. ↑ "LittleSis: Californians for a Balanced Budget and Better Economy". littlesis.org. Retrieved May 16, 2021.
  67. ↑ "FEC Individual Contributions". FEC. 2020. Retrieved December 23, 2020.
  68. ↑ "Dynamic Universities". Cambridge University Press & Assessment. Retrieved February 26, 2026.