Edith (Elura Tilton) Penrose (1914–1996) was a USA-born British citizen who spent significant time of her academic career in Europe, first at the London School of Economics and later becoming the first women faculty in INSEAD who also served as Dean for Faculty. She published several articles and books, some of which became seminal in the management field, such as her 1952 article challenging the biological or evolutionary analogy of the firm and her book titled ‘The Theory of the Growth of the Firm’ first published in the 1959. In that book, Penrose challenged the then dominant (economics’) view of firms having an optimal size, from which they shouldn’t depart, arguing instead that firms continue to grow because managers perceive new productive opportunities in the existing firm resources. That is why Penrose is considered the forerunner of the resource-based view of the firm (e.g. Wernerfelt, 1984; Barney, 1991). The economist Sir Alec Cairncross stated that the book brought Dr. Penrose "instant recognition as a creative thinker, and its importance to the analysis of the job of management has been increasingly realized" (Pace, 1996).
The award value is 5.000 EUR, generously provided by INSEAD.
The Award will reflect EURAM’s emphasis on multidisciplinary theoretical perspectives and methodological pluralism as well as critical examinations of the historical and philosophical roots of management theory and praxis; as well as INSEAD’s values of rigor and relevance for creating impactful knowledge.
In addition to receiving individual applications, we also welcome nominations from institutions or individuals on behalf of scholars who have made trailblazing contributions to their field. At least one of the researchers nominated for the award should be either a current member of EURAM or become a member in order to accept the Award (please contact luisa.jaffe@euram.academy for queries about membership status).
The nomination letter should provide an argumentation for why the nominee/s should be considered a trailblazer in a given management research area, including the references for the publication/s which substantiate such claim. The letter should not be longer than 1000 words.
Nominations should be submitted to Vice President Research EURAM via email (y.baruch@soton.ac.uk ) by April 15, 2019. A designated committee will choose the winner/s, based on the criteria mentioned above.
The winner(s) will be announced at the EURAM Conference, Lisbon in June 2019.