Research of David J. Teece
Key Research Topic:
Dynamic Capabilities and Strategic Management
This section has information on research stemming from publication of the article of this name in Strategic Management Journal in 1997 and a subsequent article, "Explicating Dynamic Capabilities: the Nature and Microfoundations of (Sustainable) Enterprise Performance," recently published in Strategic Management Journal. The original article was noted by ScienceWatch as the most highly cited article in Business and Economics in the period 1995-2005.
Citation and Abstract for original (1997) article
Strategic Management Journal page for original (1997) article
Citation and Abstract for subsequent (2007) article
Strategic Management Journal page for subsequent (2007) article
Diagram showing Dynamic Capabilities framework
Citation and Abstract for original (1997) article
Dynamic Capabilities and Strategic Management, by David J. Teece, Gary Pisano, and Amy Shuen, Strategic Management Journal, Vol. 18, No. 7 (August, 1997), pp. 509-533.
The dynamic capabilities framework analyzes the sources and methods of wealth creation and capture by private enterprise firms operating in environments of rapid technological change. The competitive advantage of firms is seen as resting on distinctive processes (ways of coordinating and combining), shaped by the firm's (specific) asset positions (such as the firm's portfolio of difficult-to-trade knowledge assets and complementary assets), and the evolution path(s) it has adopted or inherited. The importance of path dependencies is amplified where conditions of increasing returns exist. Whether and how a firm's competitive advantage is eroded depends on the stability of market demand, and the ease of replicability (expanding internally) and imitatability (replication by competitors). If correct, the framework suggests that private wealth creation in regimes of rapid technological change depends in large measure on honing internal technological, organizational, and managerial processes inside the firm. In short, identifying new opportunities and organizing effectively and efficiently to embrace them are generally more fundamental to private wealth creation than is strategizing, if by strategizing one means engaging in business conduct that keeps competitors off balance, raises rival's costs, and excludes new entrants.
Citation and Abstract for subsequent (2007) article
“Explicating Dynamic Capabilities: the Nature and Microfoundations of (sustainable) Enterprise Performance", Strategic Management Journal, 28:13 (December 2007), 1319-1350.
This paper draws on the social and behavioral sciences in an endeavor to specify the nature and microfoundations of the capabilities necessary to sustain superior enterprise performance in an open economy with rapid innovation and globally dispersed sources of invention, innovation, and manufacturing capability. Dynamic capabilities enable business enterprises to create, deploy, and protect the intangible assets that support superior long- run business performance. The microfoundations of dynamic capabilities - the distinct skills, processes, procedures, organizational structures, decision rules, and disciplines - which undergird enterprise-level sensing, seizing, and reconfiguring capacities are difficult to develop and deploy. Enterprises with strong dynamic capabilities are intensely entrepreneurial. They not only adapt to business ecosystems, but also shape them through innovation and through collaboration with other enterprises, entities, and institutions. The framework advanced can help scholars understand the foundations of long-run enterprise success while helping managers delineate relevant strategic considerations and the priorities they must adopt to enhance enterprise performance and escape the zero profit tendency associated with operating in markets open to global competition.
