THE year 2009 marks the 50th anniversary of Edith Penrose’s The Theory of the Growth of the Firm (hereafter TGF). In a review of the book in the Economic Journal, Robin Marris (1961) predicted that TGF would prove one of the most influential of the decade. In his 1987 entry to the New Palgrave he added that ‘this proved an understatement’ (p. 831). Marris’s statements were referring mainly to the economic theory of the firm, especially the literature on ‘managerial theories’, which were popular in the 1960s and to which he himself was a major contributor (Marris 1964). The book’s reception in economics was anticipated by the reputable Oxford economist P. W. S. Andrews. In his 1961 review of TGF Andrews noted that A theory of the growth of firms surely should involve generalizations about their economic environment, or, in other words, just those questions about the (equilibrium) structures of industries which the author rules out of court at the start’.

2009年是伊迪丝·彭罗斯（Edith Penrose）发表《企业成长理论》（以下简称TGF）50周年。罗宾·马里斯（Robin Marris，1961）在对《经济杂志》一书的评论中预测，TGF将成为十年中最具影响力的一个。在1987年的《新帕尔格雷夫》一书中，他补充说“这被证明是一种轻描淡写的说法”（第831页）。Marris的陈述主要是指公司的经济理论，特别是关于“管理理论”的文献，这些文献在20世纪60年代很流行，他本人也是其中的主要贡献者（Marris 1964）。著名的牛津经济学家P.W.s.Andrews预计这本书在经济学上会受到欢迎。安德鲁斯在1961年对TGF安德鲁斯的评论中指出，一个企业增长理论肯定应该包括对其经济环境的概括，或者换句话说，就是那些作者在一开始就排除在法庭之外的关于产业（均衡）结构的问题。