Penrose’s Resource‐Based Approach: The Process and Product of Research Creativity

Abstract

As this paper documents, Edith Tilton Penrose’s (1959) classic The Theory of the Growth of the Firm is one of the most influential books of the second half of the twentieth century bridging economics and management. Yet, there is little understanding of the process by which this classic came about and the lessons to be learned concerning research creativity. This paper explores Penrose’s (1959) ‘resources approach’ to the growth of the firm as an iterative process of scientific discovery via induction and scientific justification by deductive reasoning. We focus on: (1) the research process that led to Penrose’s (1959) classic; (2) the book’s contributions to management; (3) the generative nature of Penrose’sresearch for current resource‐based theory; and (4) future research building on Penrose’s ‘resources approach’.