Henry Chesbrough

Henry Chesbrough is Faculty Director of the Garwood Center for Corporate Innovation within the Institute of Business Innovation at the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley. Previously, he was an assistant professor of business administration, and the Class of 1961 Fellow at the Harvard Business School. He holds a Ph.D. in Business Administration from the University of California-Berkeley, an MBA from Stanford University, and a BA from Yale University, summa cum laude.

His research focuses on managing technology and innovation. He is known as “the father of open innovation”, due to his book, Open Innovation (Harvard Business School Press, 2003). This book was named a “Best Business Book” by Strategy & Business magazine, and the best book on innovation on NPR’s All Things Considered. Scientific American magazine named him one of the top 50 technology and business leaders in recognition of his research on industrial innovation. An academic version of open innovation, Open Innovation: Researching a New Paradigm, with Wim Vanhaverbeke and Joel West, was published in 2006 by Oxford University Press.

His second book, Open Business Models (Harvard Business School Press, 2006), extends his analysis of innovation to business models, intellectual property management, and markets for innovation. It was named one of the ten best books on innovation in 2006 by BusinessWeek, and has been translated into six languages. Henry also wrote , Open Services Innovation (Jossey Bass, 2011), which analyses open innovation in services’ contexts. It was favorably reviewed in The Economist, and is being translated into several languages. His most recent book, Open Innovation Results: Going Beyond the Hype and Getting Down to Business (Oxford University Press, 2019), offers the latest theory and evidence from open innovation processes, and discusses how to get real business results from it.

His academic work has been published in Harvard Business Review, California Management Review, Sloan Management Review, Research Policy, Industrial and Corporate Change, Research-Technology Management, Business History Review, and the Journal of Evolutionary Economics. He is the author of more than 20 case studies on companies in the IT and life sciences sectors, available through Harvard Business School Publishing. He contributes a blog to Forbes.com, and is a member of the Editorial Board of Research Policy and the California Management Review.

Prior to embarking on an academic career, he spent ten years in various product planning and strategic marketing positions in Silicon Valley companies. He worked for seven of those years at Quantum Corporation, a leading hard disk drive manufacturer and a Fortune 500 company. Previously, he worked at Bain and Company. He tweets @Openinno, and co-manages the Openinnovation.net website, an open innovation resource for managers and academics alike.

Henry also co-creates impactful custom programs for our corporate, government, and university partners.

Education

• PhD, Business Administration and Public Policy, Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley
  
• MBA, Stanford University, with Highest Honors
  
• BA, Economics, Yale University, Summa Cum Laude
  

Positions Held

• At Haas since 2003
  
• 2005 – present, Adjunct Professor, Haas School of Business
  
• 2003 – present, Executive Director, Center for Open Innovation, Haas School of Business
  
• 1997 – 2003, Assistant Professor and Class of 1961 Fellow, Harvard Business School
  
• 1983 – 1995, Vice President of Marketing and Business Development and other product marketing positions, Plus Development Corporation, an entrepreneurial subsidiary of Quantum Corporation
  

External Service and Assignments

• Member, Editorial Board, Research Policy and California Management Review 
• Academy of Management – BPS, OMT, TIM Divisions
• Ad hoc reviewer, California Management Review, Research Policy, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, _and _Industrial and Corporate Change
• Board member, Journal of Engineering and Technology Management

Current Research and Interests

• Innovation
• Organizing, structuring, and managing internal and external research and development
• Technology-based spinoffs and corporate venture capital
• Managing intellectual property
• Comparative industry evolution in high-technology industries between the US, Japan, and Western Europe

Selected Papers and Publications

• “Hierarchical Segmentation of R&D Process and Intellectual Property Protection: Evidence from Mulitnational R&D Laboratories in China,” with Xiaohong Quan. IEE Transactions on Engineering Management 57, no. 1 (2010): 9-21.
• “Understanding the Advantages of Open Innovation Practices in Corporate Venturing in Terms of Real Options,” with Wim Vanhaverbeke and Vareska Van de Vrande. Creativity and Innovation Management 17, no. 4 (2008): 251-258.
• “Open R&D and open innovation: exploring the phenomenon,” with Oliver Gassmann and Ellen Enkel. R&D Management 39, no. 4 (September 2009): 311-316.
• Open Business Models: How to Thrive in the New Innovation Landscape. Harvard Business School Press, 2006.
• Open Innovation: The New Imperative for Creating and Profiting from Technology. Harvard Business School Press, 2003.
• “Environmental Influences upon Firm Entry into New Sub-Markets: Evidence from the Worldwide Hard Disk Drive Industry.” _Research Policy _32, no. 4 (2003): 659-678.
• “The Differing Organizational Impact of Technological Change: A Comparative Theory of National Institutional Factors.” Industrial and Corporate Change 8, no. 3 (1999): 447-485.

Teaching

• Managing Innovation, MBA 290I
• Introduction to the Management of Technology, MBA 290A
• Innovation in Services and Business Models, MBA 290T

Honors and Awards

• Honoris Causa Doctorate from Universitat de Vic, 2014
• Leading Through Innovation Award, 2009
• Book Open Business Models named one of Top Ten Books on Innovation by BusinessWeek magazine, 2006
• Named as one of the Scientific American Top 50 Business and Technology leaders for 2003
• Book Open Innovation named Best Business Book on Innovation by Strategy and Business magazine in 2003
• Received NEDO/METI scholarship for research on spin-offs, March, 2003
• Appointed Sasakawa Foundation Research Fellow, Haas School of Business, January 2002, and January 2003
• Appointed Class of 1961 Fellow, Harvard Business School, 1999
• Awarded Robert Noyce Memorial Fellowship in Industrial Competitiveness from the Intel Foundation, 1995-1997
• Awarded Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor at UC Berkeley, May, 1996