Edith Penrose Quotes

A firm is essentially a pool of resources the utilization of which is organized in an administrative framework.

Management tries to make the best use of the resources available.

There is no need to deny that other 'objectives' are often important—power, prestige, public approval, or the mere love of the game— it need only be recognized that the attainment of these ends more often than not is associated directly with the ability to make profits.

Internal inducements to expansion arise largely from the existence of a pool of unused productive services, resources and special knowledge, all of which will always be found within any firm.

A firm is more than an administrative unit; it is also a collection of productive resources the disposal of which between uses and over time is determined by administrative decision.

If profits are a condition of successful growth, but profits are sought primarily for the sake of the firm, that is, to reinvest in the firm rather than to reimburse owners for the use of their capital or their 'risk bearing,' then, from the point of view of investment policy, growth and profits become equivalent as the criteria for the selection of investment programmes.

Difficulties arise when an attempt is made to acclimatize the theory to an alien environment and, in particular, to adapt the analysis of the expansion of the innovating multi-product, ‘flesh and blood’ organisations that businessmen call firms.