This article uses the case of family business to distinguish the range of potential aims and outcomes of corporate heritage communication. In family businesses, the challenges of heritage communication are particularly salient as the past of the firm is simultaneously that of the controlling family. Based on a study of 55 websites of Swedish and German family-owned firms, we classify aims and outcomes of heritage communication with reference to different stakeholders. Our findings elucidate the need to consider various stakeholders when planning heritage communications, and the value of such communication for different corporate functions, such as marketing, management and governance. To aid decision-making we offer a framework to map aims and stakeholders of heritage communication related to a company’s functions.   

Purpose: The purpose of this article is to improve our understanding of the nature of social responsibility in actual practices and, specifically, the influence of individuals on these processes. 

Design/methodology/approach: An abductive approach is applied (Alvesson and Sköldberg 1994), i.e. theory is developed by moving between theory and four empirical cases. The storeis highlight the importance of the individual and closeness to local stakeholders and the presence of overlapping rationales.

Findings: The individuals’ simultaneous roles – as owners, managers, and community members – influence how they are held or see themselves as accountable and how they account for the firms’ engagement in the community. The activities are conducted in the name of the firm but originate from private as well as business-oriented concerns. Our conclusions encourage an extension of the CSR construct to approach it as an entangled phenomenon resulting from the firm and the individual embeddedness in internal and external cultures.

Originality/value: This study brings the individual managers and owner-managers into focus and how their interplay with the surrounding context can create additional dimensions of accountability, which impact on the decisions taken in regard to CSR. A micro-perspective is applied. Corporate community responsibility, particularly in smaller and rural communities, contributes to recognize and understand how individuals influence, and are influenced by CSR.

Purpose: This paper explores whether corporate heritage as a component in planned communications can be important to foster a responsible corporate brand image among consumers. 

Design/methodology/approach: A research model with three hypotheses was created and tested through linear multiple regression analysis, including 199 brands. The dependent variable, responsible brand image, was obtained from a Swedish consumer survey (n=8015). The independent variables were measured through content analyses of the brands' webpages.  

Findings: The findings support that presence of corporate heritage in CSR communication is positively related to responsible brand image with consumers. It is notable that the results indicate that corporate heritage identity on its own does not influence positive consumer perception on responsibility, unless it is linked to CSR communication.

Research limitations/implications: Previous research has indicated the significance of cultural context on what constitutes effective CSR communication. As this study is limited to a Swedish consumer sample, we therefore recommend further research including a wider national context in order to validate the findings.

Practical implications: Our study and findings can inspire and inform companies how corporate heritage can be utilised in brand communications to facilitate CSR credibility among consumers.

Originality/value: By introducing history and heritage as a perspective on CSR communication and responsible brand image, we add to the growing literature on corporate heritage identity and branding. The findings also add to the CSR communication literature calling for more knowledge on elements that build effective CSR communication.

Key words: Brand image, Consumer perception, CSR, CSR communication, Corporate heritage identity, History, Heritage

This chapter adds to the discourse focused on better understanding how the idiosyncrasies of family businesses can be leveraged through marketing. We first present an overview of the essence of contemporary marketing and then review this from a distinctive family business perspective. We evaluate existing literature and relevant family business characteristics to propose how marketing can leverage ‘familiness’. As an output, we distill opportunities for further conceptual and empirical research studies.

One of the main goals of family business research is to understand how family firms differ from non-family firms and to understand the benefits of family ownership. To date, research exploring these issues has focused on understanding unique resources that are based on intra-organizational features, which derive from the interaction between family and business. In this chapter we argue that an increased understanding of how family firms brand themselves and reference family association can represent a complementary approach to understanding the uniqueness and benefits of these types of firms. Whereas past research has studied family business uniqueness based on their internal characteristics, we believe that brand management offers scholars the opportunity to recognize further unique family business resources; involving the external stakeholders’ views on family businesses. Based on this argument, we introduce family business reputation and reputational capital as an additional and potential basis for the family business’ competitive advantage.

Purpose: We seek to uncover why and how the combination of family and company history in family businesses implies idiosyncratic opportunities in the process to uncover, activate, and nurture heritage-based corporate identities and brands.  

Findings: Based on the construct of brand heritage, we clarify why the entwinement of family and business provides fertile ground for brand heritage. The presentation of a typology of ways to communicate family, firm and family firm history respectively further reveals the varying openings and practices of family businesses in this area. 

Design/methodology/approach: Our discussion is specifically informed by the literatures on brand heritage, family business, and the notion of hybrid identities. To illustrate our typology of history communication in family businesses we rely on website observations in Sweden and German-based family businesses.

Research limitations/implications: The paper primarily takes an external marketing orientation and is conceptual. 

Practical implications: The distinction of two sources of brand heritage in family businesses and the typology of approaches to reflect history in corporate communications should be of interest for practitioners. The findings can serve as eye-opener and instrument in the planning of strategic marketing.   

Originality/value: We focus on brand heritage and heritage branding from a family business perspective. Being hybrid identity organizations, characterized by entwinement of family and company history, family businesses offer particular perspectives to the heritage brand discussion.

Key words: Brand heritage, Branding, Corporate communication, Corporate identity, Family Business, History