There are not many books that are genuine classics, and only a handful in business and management whose insights and ideas last for 50 years and more. This book is one of the very few 'must reads' for anybody seriously interested in the role of management within the firm. Originally published in 1959, The Theory of the Growth of the Firm has illuminated and inspired thinking in strategy, entrepreneurship, knowledge creation, and innovation. Edith Penrose's tightly-argued classic laid the foundations for the resource based view of the firm, now the dominant framework in business strategy. She analyses managerial activities and decisions, organizational routines, and also the factors that inevitably limit a firm's growth prospects. For this new anniversary edition, Christos Pitelis has written a new introduction which both tells the story of Penrose's extraordinary life, and provides a balanced assessment of her key ideas and their continuing relevance and freshness.
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) *



Book Information
ISBN 9780199573844
Author Edith Penrose
Format Paperback
Page Count 304
Imprint Oxford University Press
Publisher Oxford University Press
Weight(grams) 445g
Dimensions(mm) 233mm * 153mm * 18mm