Revisiting the evolutionism of Edith Penrose’s The theory of the growth of the firm: Penrose’s entrepreneur meets Veblenian institutions

Abstract

Edith Penrose’s The theory of the growth of the firm has offered key ingredients to an evolutionary approach to the growth of the firm. The entrepreneur enlivened by Edith Penrose in that book is revisited here, considering the role played by institutions in his decision-making. It is argued that her view of the entrepreneur rests greatly in the task of successfully linking two intertwined institutional sets, one internal and the other external to the firm. As a result, the entrepreneur must deal with instrumental and ceremonial elements of both institutional sets in order to re-channel pecuniary gains. The evolutionary approach of Veblenian institutionalism offers an apt definition of institutions to the case in point and is thus used here to expand Penrose’s case account of Hercules Powder Company.