Raphael Amit

Raphael ("Raffi") Amit is an economist, author, and academic. He is the Marie and Joseph Melone Professor and a professor of management at the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School.

Amit's research focuses on family firms, family offices, and business model innovation strategy. He received the 2007 Thought Leader Award from the Academy of Management and is an elected fellow of the Strategic Management Society.

Education Amit earned a BA and MA in Economics from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem followed by a PhD in Managerial Economics and Decision Sciences from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management, Northwestern University.

Career Following the completion of his PhD, Amit began his professional career as a senior energy economist at Data Resources. He then served on the faculty of Industrial Engineering and Management of the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology. In 1999, he joined the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania as the Robert B. Goergen Professor of entrepreneurship and Professor of Management, a role he held until 2016. In 2016, he became the Marie and Joseph Melone Professor and professor of management at Wharton. Amit served as the academic director of Wharton Entrepreneurship from 1999 to 2015 and director of the Wharton Electronic Business Initiative from 2000 to 2004. In 2004, he founded and acted as academic director and chairman of the executive committee of the Wharton Global Family Alliance, a position he continues to hold. He has also studied and advised ultra high net worth families and their businesses.

Amit's research has also focused on designing business models and on business strategy.

Amit's work has been widely cited, having received over 80,000 citations according to Google Scholar as of September 2025.

Awards and honors 2007 – Thought Leader Award, Academy of Management 2007 – Standard Life Investments Finance Prize, European Corporate Governance Institute 2009 – Fellow, Strategic Management Society