Reconceptualising the principles of Penrose’s (1959) theory and the resource based view of the firm

This article develops a conceptual framework to explain the firm growth process based on an integration and extension, through empirical research, of Penrose’s theory of the growth of the firm and the resource based view. Theoretical development within the firm growth literature has been noticeably limited. Firm growth studies use different theoretical bases and what is needed is integration of multiple theories and empirical testing of these to form a new conceptual framework capable of explaining the modern growth process fully.The key perspectives are critically reviewed and integrated and empirical qualitative research is undertaken analysing the process of growth in two firms. Semi-structured interviews, participant observation and analysis of company documentation are utilised.The key insight this research provides is detailed information with regard to which resources, mediators and outputs are vital to firm growth, how they need to be developed and why this is the case. The study shows that these act in a cyclical nature to enable firm growth and development.These findings could be used by practitioners to determine which part of the conceptual framework requires the most amount of improvement and which are developed to an acceptable state, enabling them to make plans for the achievement of growth.This research is able to reconceptualise two dominant theoretical perspectives resulting in the generation of a new firm growth framework, thereby addressing a distinct gap in the firm growth literature

Collected Papers: Entrepreneurship

These collected papers serve as a student exercise in critical thinking. The aim is to explore and discover knowledge relating to differing aspects of entrepreneurship. Critical thinking skills, academic writing and the ability to build arguments are all skills we consider an essential part of our student progression. Our students understand critical thinking as an intellectually disciplined, cognitive process which involves the reflective, active analysis and evaluation of knowledge and arguments in order to develop their own defensible knowledge and arguments. Reading and writing are enquiries that require an action rather than just repeating what has been previously stated or done, it is an act of discovery. It is for this reason we are not offering definitions of entrepreneurship or explanations of any aspects of the challenges in entrepreneurship education and practice, we will leave this to our students. Whether our approach to entrepreneurship education on this particular module serves to empower and emancipate or to just challenge and explore, might be open for debate. It can be argued that entrepreneurship education should be a way of action rather than a specific subject area . We don’t disagree, but in this instance embrace the subject area as a means to building knowledge, skills and exploring the subject area with our students

An exploration into a new theoretical perspective of firm growth: Combining resources, mediating factors and output factors

Theoretical development within the firm growth literature has been noticeably limited since the generation of Penrose’s (1959) theory of the growth of the firm. Since then the resource based view of the firm has been widely studied and debated and yet is criticised for being too vague. This paper reviews the resource based view of the firm and undertakes empirical grounded theory research, in an attempt to identify the key resources required for firm growth to occur. The research resulted not only in the generation of key resources but in the generation of a new firm growth theory, explaining how resources interact with other areas of the firm to enable firm growth. Conclusions are made regarding the implications of the findings for future research

The open innovation process in a small early stage knowledge based firm: The essential business model?

Open innovation and how it influences firms has never before received so much focus from academics, policy makers and practitioners. However there is a distinct lack of research into this process in small firms and as such this research develops insight into open innovation use and development in a small early stage firm. Data was gained from the results of one case study. 12 in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted, with 6 different participants, as well as analysis of company documentation and participant observation. The result being in-depth insight into the process of open innovation development and its effect on firm growth. The research finds that open innovation was crucial in enabling the development of this firm and is ultimately a business model that no organisation, no matter their size, should be without