This ar ticle examines the challenge of modifying orthodox `case study' approaches to the growth of firms and interorganizational networks in the light of recent work on the evolution of business knowledge. We suggest that a modified Penrosian framework, combined with a qualified application of critical realist practices, could contribute to more coherent and insightful theorizing in this area.We begin with a critique of Edith Penrose's legacy, including her effor ts to initiate a historically informed tradition of social scientific research on the growth of the firm. We go on to consider the explanator y potential of critical realism, when adopted as a methodological adjunct to neo-Penrosian theorizing. Our main proposition is illustrated through a superfactual reinterpretation of certain aspects of the historical case study of the Rover Company (1896—1982) conducted by Richard Whipp and Peter Clark (1986).
Abernathy, W.J.1978. The productivity dilemma: Roadblock to innovation in the automobile industry. New Haven, CT: Johns Hopkins University Press .
2.
Abernathy, W.J. , and K.B. Clark.1985. Innovation: Mapping the winds of creative destruction . Research Policy14: 3—22 .
3.
Abernathy, W.J. , K.B. Clark , and A.M. Kantrow.1983. Industrial renaissance: Producing a competitive future for America. New York: Basic Books .
4.
Abernathy, W.J. , and J.M. Utterback.1978. Patterns of innovation in industry . Technology Review80(7): 40—7 .
5.
Ackroyd, S. , and S. Fleetwood , eds. 2000. Critical realism in action in organization and management studies. London: Routledge .
6.
Archer, M.S.1995. Realist social theory: The morphogenetic approach . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press .
7.
Archer M.S.2000. Being human: The problem of agency. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press .
8.
Archer, M.S.2003. Structure, agency and the internal conversation . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press .
9.
Best, M.H.2001. The new competitive advantage: The renewal of American industry. Oxford: Oxford University Press .
10.
Blundel, R.K.2002a. The growth of `connected' firms: A re-appraisal of Penrosian theory and its application to artisanal firms operating in contemporary business networks. The University of Birmingham (unpublished doctoral thesis).
11.
Blundel, R.K.2002b. Network evolution and the growth of artisanal firms: A tale of two regional cheesemakers . Entrepreneurship and Regional Development14: 1—30 .
12.
Blundel, R.K.2007. Critical realism: A suitable vehicle for entrepreneurship research? In Handbook of qualitative research in entrepreneurship , ed. H. Neergard and J.P. Ulhøi.Cheltenham: Edward Elgar .
13.
Blundel, R.K. , and P.A. Clark.2004. Blurred boundaries and contingently finite zones of manoeuvre: Modifying the Penrosian framework . Paper to the conference on Shifting Boundaries: Governance, Competence and Economic Organization in the Knowledge Economy. Bristol , September.
14.
Boulding, K.E.1956. The image: Knowledge in life and society. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press .
15.
Braudel, F.1969. On history. Chicago: University of Chicago Press .
16.
Castells, M.1996. The rise of the network society (The information age: Economy, society and culture, Vol. I). Oxford: Blackwell .
17.
Castells, M.1997a. The power of identity (The information age: Economy, society and culture, Vol. II). Oxford: Blackwell .
18.
Castells, M.1997b. The end of the millennium (The information age: Economy, society and culture, Vol. III). Oxford: Blackwell .
19.
Church, R.1994. The rise and fall of the British motor industry . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press .
20.
Clark, P.A.1972. Organizational design: Theory and practice. London: Tavistock .
21.
Clark, P.A.1978. Time reckoning systems in large organisations . Study of TimeIII: 391—416 .
22.
Clark, P.A.1985. A review of theories of time and structures for organization studies. In Organizational sociology: Research and perspectives , Vol. IV, ed. S.B. Bacharach and S.M. Mitchell , 35—79. New Haven, CT: JAI Press .
23.
Clark, P.A.1987. Anglo-American innovation. New York : De Gruyter .
24.
Clark, P.A.2000. Organisations in action: Competition between contexts . London: Routledge .
25.
Clark, P.A.2003. Organizational innovations. London : SAGE .
26.
Clark, P.A. , C. Booth , M. Rowlinson , S. Procter , and A. Delahaye.2007. Project hindsight: Exploring necessity and possibility in cycles of structuration and co-evolution. Technology Analysis & StrategicManagement19: 83—97 .
27.
Clark, P.A. , and M. Rowlinson.2004. The treatment of history in organization studies: Towards an “historic turn”?Business History46: 331—52 .
28.
Clark, P.A. , and N. Staunton.1989. Innovation in technology and organisation . London: Routledge .
29.
Corley, T.A.B.1993. Firms and markets: Towards a theory of business history . Business and Economic History22: 54—66 .
30.
Danermark, B. , M. Ekstrom , L. Jakobsen , and J. Karlsson.2002. Explaining society: Critical realism in the social sciences. London: Routledge .
31.
Easton, G.2000. Case research as a method for industrial networks: a realist apologia. In Critical realism in action in organization and management studies, ed. S. Ackroyd and S. Fleetwood , 205—19. London : Routledge .
32.
Evans, R.J.2000 [1997] In defence of history. London: Granta .
33.
Flanders, A. , and H.A. Clegg , editors. 1954. The system of industrial relations in Great Britain: Its history, law and institutions. Oxford : Blackwell .
34.
Giddens, A.1979. Central problems in social theory. London: Macmillan .
35.
Giddens, A.1981. A contemporary critique of historical materialism . London: Macmillan .
36.
Giddens, A.1984. Constitution of society. Cambridge : Polity Press .
37.
Giddens, A.2000. The Third Way and its critics. London : Polity Press .
38.
Gourvish, T.1995. Business history: In defence of the empirical approach ? Accounting, Business and Financial History5: 3—16 .
39.
Gregory, D.1982. Regional transformation and industrial revolution . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press .
40.
Gurvitch, G.1964. The spectrum of social time. Dordrecht : D. Reidel.
41.
Harvey, D.J.1990. The condition of postmodernity. Oxford : Blackwell .
42.
Harvey, D.J.2001. Spaces of capital: Towards a critical geography . Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press .
43.
Holweg, M. , and N. Oliver.2005. Who killed MG Rover? Cambridge: The Cambridge-MIT Centre for Competitiveness and Innovation .
44.
Huygens, M. , C. Baden-Fuller , F.A.J. Van Den Bosch , and H.W. Volberda.2001. Co-evolution of firm capabilities and industry competition: Investigating the music industry 1877-1997 . Organization Studies22: 971—1012 .
45.
Jacobides, M.G. , and S.G. Winter.2005. The co-evolution of capabilities and transaction costs: Explaining the institutional structure of production . Strategic Management Journal26: 395—413 .
46.
Jones, C.2001. Co-evolution of entrepreneurial careers, institutional rules and competitive dynamics in American film, 1895—1920 . Organization Studies22: 911—44 .
47.
Kay, N.M.1997. Pattern in corporate evolution. Oxford : Oxford University Press .
48.
Kay, N.M.1999. Hercules and Penrose . Contributions to Political Economy18: 67—86 .
49.
Kor, Y.Y. , and J.T. Mahoney.2000. Penrose's resource-based approach: The process and product of research creativity . Journal of Management Studies37: 109—39 .
50.
Le Roy Ladurie, E.1979. The territory of the historian. Hassocks : Harvester . [Translation of Le térritoire de l'historien. Paris: Gallimard (1973)]
51.
Lawson, C. , and E. Lorenz.1999. Collective learning, tacit knowledge and regional innovative capacity . Regional Studies33: 305—17 .
52.
Lazonick, W.1991. Business organization and the myth of the market economy . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press .
53.
Lee, C.H.1990a. Corporate behaviour in theory and history: (I) The evolution of theory . Business History32: 17—31 .
54.
Lee, C.H.1990b. Corporate behaviour in theory and history: (II) The historian's perspective . Business History32: 163—79 .
55.
Penrose, E.T.1959. The theory of the growth of the firm. Oxford: Blackwell .
56.
Penrose, E.T.1960. The growth of the firm - a case study: the Hercules Powder Company . Business History Review34: 1—23
57.
Penrose, E.T. [1959] 1995. The theory of the growth of the firm, 3rd ed. Oxford: Blackwell .
58.
Sayer, A.2000. Realism and social science. London : SAGE .
59.
Schumpeter, J.A.1949. The creative response in economic history . The Journal of Economic History7: 149—59 .
60.
Smith, C. , J. Child , and M. Rowlinson.1990. Reshaping work: The Cadbury experience . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press .
61.
Sorge, A. , and A. van Witteloostuijn. 2004. The (non)sense of organizational change: An essai about universal management hypes, sick consultancy metaphors, and healthy organization theories . Organization Studies25: 1205—1231 .
62.
Stinchcombe, A.L.1965. Social structures and organizations. In Handbook of organizations, ed. J.G. March , 142—93. Chicago: Rand McNally .
63.
Storper, M. , and R. Salais.1997. Worlds of production . Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press . Subramaniyam, V.2000. Critical realism and development programmes in rural South India . Journal of Critical Realism4: 17—23 .
64.
Swedberg, R.1991. Joseph A. Schumpeter: His life and work . Cambridge : Polity.
65.
Swedberg, R. , ed. 2000. Entrepreneurship: The social science view. Oxford: Oxford University Press . Touraine , A.1965. Workers' attitudes to technical change: An integrated survey of research. Paris: OECD . Whipp, R. , and P.A. Clark.1986. Innovation and the auto industry: Product, process and work organization. London: Francis Pinter .
66.
Whittington, R.1989. Corporate strategies in recession and recovery . London: Unwin .
67.
Wilson, J.F. , and A. Popp , eds. 2002. Industrial clusters and regional business networks in England, 1750-1970. Oxford: Oxford University Press .
