Revisitando a "Teoria do Crescimento da Firma" sob as perspectivas de Penrose e Kirzner: conteúdos e divergências

Abstract

This article proposes an original methodological re-reading of the main conclusions of the book "Theory of Firm Growth", by Edith Penrose, from the perspective of the Austrian School, with an emphasis on the ideas of Israel Kirzner. It presents an introduction to the Neoclassical Theory of the firm, and discusses how it is understood and criticized by Penrose and Kirzner. From there, he reviews the theory proposed in Penrose's book, analyzing how her’s conclusions are necessarily dependent on the methodological paths covered by her, to anthropomorphize in the firm the entrepreneurial actions that are the exclusive character of homo agens. This work observes that Penrose, following a methodology that is not very well defined, and which is not even expressed by her, ignores the subjectivism and individualism defended by the Austrian School, ends up proposing no more than a unilateral reading of the firm, from a managerial perspective, looks at companies from the inside out, in pursuit of profit opportunities, but that incurs the mistake of leaving aside the essential feature of the market process, i.e. entrepreneurial competition.