Teece is the executive chairman and cofounder of Berkeley Research Group, an expert services and consulting firm headquartered in Emeryville, California.

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.

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.

[20] The key elements in what has been called the Teece Model[21] are the imitability of the innovation (how easily competitors can copy it) and the ownership of complementary assets.

[24] Dynamic capabilities have been defined as "the ability to integrate, build, and reconfigure internal and external competencies to address rapidly changing environments".

Teece invited and organized the "New Enlightenment Conference" in Panmure House, the original home of Adam Smith in Edinburgh, Scotland, July 2019.

"[35] 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.

[citation needed] In 2003, Lappeenranta University presented Teece with the first Viipuri International Prize in Strategic (Technology) Management and Business Economics.

[citation needed] 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.

[48] Teece is described as a " 'leading authority' on matters related to antitrust and competition policy and intellectual property stating and is 'highly sought after.

"[51] 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.

[54] 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.

In recent election cycles he has donated to several Republican senators' campaigns, including Susan Collins, Mitt Romney, Tom Cotton, Lisa Murkowski, and Dan Sullivan.