Joseph Schumpeter and Josef Steindl provide distinctive contributions to the analysis of growth and development under capitalism. They each analyse the evolution of competition and use this analysis to determine the growth prospects of mature capitalism. Both reach pessimistic conclusions, although for different reasons. This paper critically examines the analysis of each author and makes suggestions for building on their work to provide a richer theory of economic growth and transformation, which can be used to assess current and future growth prospects for advanced capitalist economies.