Background: Family firms represent a dominant organizational form characterized by a strong emphasis on continuity, legacy and long-term orientation. This tension is particularly evident in family firms within the food and farming sector, where strong ties to land, tradition and local identity intensify the challenge of preserving heritage with market adaptation. The tension becomes especially prominent during succession processes, where different generations may hold divergent views on the firm’s future direction.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to develop an in-depth understanding of how succession processes in family firms shape the balance between preserving legacy and enabling strategic renewal over time. 

Method: The study adopts a relativist ontological stance and an interpretivist epistemological perspective, applying an abductive research approach. A comparative case study design is used, drawing on eight semi-structured interviews with members from different generations across two family-owned firms within the food and farming sector, Rudenstams Bär & Frukt and Vistakulle Fruktodling. The empirical material is analyzed using thematic analysis with an abductive and iterative coding process. 

Conclusion: The study concludes that legacy is preserved through renewal, as each generation protects the core while building new commercial activities outward from it. Socioemotional wealth explains why the core is non-negotiable, while familiness explains how renewal is made possible without dissolving what makes the firm distinctive.