Edith Penrose’s many and varied contributions to business studies deserve recognition. In her later years, she focused on the oil industry and on multinational enterprises (MNEs).1 In this chapter, we note some of her earlier contributions which helped initiate important streams of research, including the resource-based theory of the firm. Her influence has also extended to new streams of research on dynamic capabilities and entrepreneurship. We discuss some implications for MNEs of the dynamic capabilities framework. In her most important scholarly journey, Edith Penrose set out to develop a theory of the growth of the firm. Indeed, this was the title of her now well-known ([1959] 1995) treatise.2 Along the way she made several other astute observations about firms that turned out to be provocative to scholars interested in the theory of the firm and business strategy. It is these observations—particularly the notion that the firm is best thought of as a bundle of resources—which now constitute her better-known legacy.
Source: Teece David J. (2009), Dynamic Capabilities and Strategic Management: Organizing for Innovation and Growth, Oxford University Press; 1st edition.