The Theory of the Growth of the Firm

Description

There are not many books that are genuine classics, and only a handful in business and management whose insights and ideas last for over 50 years. This book is one of the very few 'must reads' for anybody seriously interested in the role of management in the firm. A new introduction recounts Penrose's extraordinary life and assesses her key ideas.

• New 50th anniversary edition of a classic text in business and economics
• Essential reading for understanding business strategy
• Insights into Entrepreneurship, Innovation, the Theory of the Firm, Mergers, and Growth
• New introduction by Christos Pitelis assesses Penrose's ideas and contribution

New to this edition

• New introduction by Christos Pitelis assesses Penrose's ideas and contribution

About the Author(s)

Edith Penrose, formerly at SOAS and INSEAD

Table of Contents

Introduction, Christos Pitelis
Preface
1:Introduction
2:The Firm in Theory
3:The Productive Opportunity of the Firm and the 'Entrepreneur'
4:Expansion Without Merger: The Receding Managerial Limit
5:'Inherited' Resources and the Direction of Expansion
6:The Economies of Size and the Economies of Growth
7:The Economics of Diversification
8:Expansion Through Acquisition and Merger
9:The Rate of Growth of Firms Through Time
10:The Position of Large and Small Firms in a Growing Economy
11:Growing Firms in a Growing Economy: The Process of Industrial Concentration and the Pattern of Dominance

Reviews

Review from previous edition A jewel of a volume. - John Kay, Financial Times

The basic propositions that Edith Penrose put forth in her book The Theory of the Growth of the Firm were provocative and path breaking. However, few then ventured to go down the path she blazed. Time has passed, and over the last decade that path has become crowded with scholars of firm behaviour, some of whom have only the dimmest awareness that the ideas they are working with were first put forward by Penrose. How good it is to have her book, long out of print, available again. Her insights, her arguments, still read fresh and right, and finally will get the attention they warrant. - Professor Richard R. Nelson, School of International & Public Affairs, Columbia University (On third edition)

The Theory of the Growth of the Firm is not only a classic, to be read as a historical milestone in the evolution of research on the strategy and management of firms, but also the most insightful contribution to the most contemporary theory of strategy: the resource based view of the firm. I cannot think of any book that I will put higher on the 'must read' list for students and scholars in the strategy field than this one. - Sumantra Ghoshal, formerly of the London Business School (On third edition)

Edith Penrose's pioneering work on the resource-based approach to the firm's growth has greatly inspired me and hundreds of other scholars. She was also one of the first to recognize the role of knowledge in business management. As we enter the 'knowledge society', this reissue of her classic work with its new foreword is well timed and welcome. - Professor Ikujiro Nonaka, Hitosubashi University of Tokyo (On third edition)

I believe her book bears reading and re-reading becuase it is a goldmine of concepts for understanding business and industrial organization. It is unique in that it seeks to provide an axiomatic treatment of economics, but grounds it in a theory of the firm and not of markets - Professor Michael Best, Centre for Industrial Competitiveness, University of Massachusetts Lowell (On third edition)

...here was a book that was doubly blessed - it has originality as well as argument, which though subtle, was available to intelligent students at all levels. - Economics (On first edition)

...packed with ideas. - R. L. Marris, The Economic Journal (On first edition)

...a serious book that ought to touch the survival instinct of every reflective businessman and investor. - Wall Street Journal (On first edition)