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Copyright © 2022 The Author(s). Examines senior managers cognitions of CSR augmented corporate role identity in three, nascent, heritage organizations. The findings revealed CSR augmented role identity to be valuable in organizational, social, and spatial contexts. In specifying the significance of CSR as an augmented role identity, this was attributable to three qualities: community (organizational participation in community development), responsibility (organizational concern with societal and national concerns), and utility (organizational mindfulness of demonstrable national and economic efficacy). Senior managers found a CSR augmented role identity to be meaningful because it instilled their organizations with a distinctiveness beyond their core business purposes as financial institutions. Given the above insights, managers of corporate heritage organizations should uncover their organization’s augmented identities; should appraise their value and importance; and should demonstrate on-going stewardship of the same. In particular, managers of corporate heritage organizations should recognize that a CSR augmented role identity can be of inestimable value.

Purpose This paper aims to study the corporate heritage brand traits and corporate heritage brand identity by concentrating on developing key dimensions for the corporate heritage brand dimensions in the retailing industry in the UK. This study advances the corporate brand heritage theory and introduces the theory of corporate heritage brand identity, which is developed from the case study of John Lewis – one of the most respected and oldest retails in the UK established in 1864. Design/methodology/approach This empirical study has adopted a theory-building case study using qualitative data. It uses semi-structured interviews that were organised and managed by John Lewis Heritage Centre in Cookham. A total of 14 participants were involved in this study. We have used Nvivo.11 software to set the main themes and codes for this study framework. Findings This study identifies Balmer’s (2013) corporate heritage brand traits that are essential to be considered for the corporate heritage brands in the retailing industry to sustain their innovativeness and competitiveness. The findings of the case study informed the four dimensions of corporate heritage brand identity, which include price, quality, symbol and design. The findings are incorporated into a theoretical framework of corporate heritage brand identity traits. Practical implications The discussed traits of this study can help brand senior management to enhance their corporate heritage reputation and sustainability through maintaining these (four) traits over their brand, and inform their brand stakeholders about their brand heritage success. Originality/value This is one of the few attempts to develop a research framework of corporate heritage brand identity. This framework suggests four dimensions of corporate heritage brand identity traits including brand price, quality, design and symbol. This is one of the first attempts to study corporate heritage branding management traits in the retailing industry sector.

Purpose: We identify and distinguish different practices of how organizations relate to “inherited” past. Inherited pasts can be actively related to, avoided or rewritten, or can be entirely constructed. In order to understand value creation, stakeholder integration and sense-making, on the one hand, and to expose window-dressing and historical cherry picking, on the other, we ask what heritage communication practices corporations engage in and why they do so. Theory: We depart from stakeholder theory (Freeman, 2010), from contemporary theory on organizational sense making and identities, from heritage marketing (Burghausen & M.T. Balmer, 2014), and from critical cultural theory (Mosley & Biernat, 2020; Sullivan, 2019) to grasp and classify various organizational practices. Method: We selectively illustrate three ideal types of heritage communication. [...] Findings: We propose a distinction of three (potentially overlapping) ideal types of organizational heritage communication: personal, relational and artificial heritage communication. All three types bring about “dark sides” of stakeholder inclusion and exclusion. Value: We aim at providing scholars and students with an unpretentious taxonomy of existing corporate practices in dealing with history and heritage. Both narrating and critically deconstructing corporate history is vital to learning lessons from the past (Rowlinson, 2016), and to help social integration. Business executives might benefit from discussions on how to constructively deal with dark sides of corporate histories – not solely to drive revenue, but to offer sense-making for their own and their stakeholders’ benefit.

Purpose The study aims to explore customer satisfaction towards the celebrated Tong Ren Tang (TRT) Chinese corporate heritage brand (established in 1669). This paper examines the multiple role identities of the corporate brand and, in particular, the enduring imperial identity (role identity) of the corporate brand. The study examines whether the corporate heritage brand’s imperial associations are still meaningful. Design/methodology/approach A indicative, survey-based case study methodology undertaken with Chinese customers informs this research. Findings TRT’s corporate heritage brand identity and, moreover, its imperial role identity were salient in terms of customer satisfaction. TRT’s augmented imperial role identity not only was highly salient but also, moreover, meaningfully enhanced the organisation’s corporate reputation in terms of customer satisfaction. Research limitations/implication This study lends further support for the utility of the notion of corporate heritage/corporate heritage brands and in particular the saliency of the theoretical notion of augmented role identity within the corporate heritage marketing field. Practical implication Corporate heritage brand managers should be appraised of which corporate role identities are meaningful for customers. At a practical level, senior corporate marketing managers of corporate heritage organisations should accorded importance to the additional P of Provenance apropos the corporate marketing mix. Social implication At a time, when China is reappraising its relationship with its past – including its imperial past (of which much has been destroyed) – this paper’s focus on TRT’s unsurpassed augmented role identity is pertinent and propitious. Seemingly, this corporate heritage brand’s imperial association provides a living and tangible link with China’s long and momentous imperial provenance and erstwhile imperial polity. In short, the corporate heritage brand is part of China’s patrimony and enjoys a unique place in this regard. Originality/value This paper is one of the first empirical studies examining a Chinese corporate heritage brand entity. The study marks new ground in examining customer satisfaction from the theoretical perspectives of corporate heritage brand and augmented role identity. It is believed that this is the first study to consider corporate heritage in the pharmaceutical sector and marks new ground in considering the saliency of China’s imperial legacy on an extant, highly successful and high profile-Chinese corporate heritage brand.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore how corporate heritage identity (CHI) implementation strategies are communicated by Grundfos, a 70-year-old global company from Denmark, in their internal history references. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on an interdisciplinary methodological framework related to heritage identity communication, hypertextuality, and multi-modality, it proposes a multi-leveled analysis model through which communicative strategies are explored at the level of four semiotic modes (written text, speech, still image, and moving image) and at the level of their hypermodal interplay. Findings This exploratory case study explains how CHI implementation strategies are communicated in accordance with the potential and constraints of semiotic modes and hyperlinking affordances. The analytical work suggests that the management employs complex CHI implementation strategies in order to strengthen organizational identity and to influence employees’ identification with the company across past, present, and future. Research limitations/implications By examining the semiotic modes’ interconnectivity and functional differentiation in a hypermodal context, this paper expands existing research by extending the multi-modal focus to a hypertextual one. Originality/value By exploring CHI implementation strategies from a hypermodal perspective and by providing a replicable model of hypermodal analysis, this paper fills a gap in the heritage identity research. Furthermore, it can also be of value to practitioners who intend to design company webpages that strategically communicate heritage identity implementation strategies in order to engage the employees in the company’s heritage.

Este relatório de estágio é resultado do estágio académico decorrido na Heineken Collection Foundation, em Amsterdão, de Setembro de 2017 a Março de 2018. Procuro dar resposta à questão “Como comunicar a Heineken Collection em plataformas digitais: Workplace e www.heinekencollection.com”. O objectivo é o de entender como a Heineken Collection Foundation comunica o rico património da Heineken interna e externamente usando plataformas digitais. Este relatório está dividido em três partes: primeiro, a apresentação da Heineken Company, da Heineken Experience e da Heineken Collection Foundation. Em segundo, a apresentação do enquadramento teórico sobre os conceitos de “património corporativo”, “comunicação em plataformas digitais” e como aliar essas teorias à prática na criação de uma comunicação de património corporativo em plataformas digitais. Nesse mesmo capítulo discuto o trabalho que desenvolvi durante o estágio, sempre apoiado pelo enquadramento teórico. Por fim, reflito sobre os benefícios da utilização da história corporativa no desenvolvimento de estratégias de comunicação, e no apoio que empresas dão aos seus arquivos. This internship report follows my academic internship at Heineken Collection Foundation, in Amsterdam, from September 2017 to March 2018. My research question “How to Communicate Heineken Collection on digital platforms: Workplace and www.heinekencollection.com” aims to understand how a corporate heritage institution like the Heineken Collection Foundation communicates Heineken’s rich heritage internally and externally on digital platforms. This report is divided into three parts: first the presentation of the Heineken Company, the Heineken Experience and the Heineken Collection Foundation. Second, the theoretical framework on the concepts of “corporate heritage”, “communication on digital platforms” and how to ally these theories in creating a corporate heritage communication on digital platforms. In this same part I discuss the work I developed during the internship supported by the theoretical framework. Finally, I will reflect upon the gains of corporates using history in their communication strategies and supporting corporate heritage institutions to inform the corporate at all levels.

The notion of heritage branding orientation is introduced and explicated. Heritage branding orientation is designated as embracing both product and corporate brands and differs from corporate heritage brand orientation which has an explicit corporate focus. Empirical insights are drawn from an in-depth and longitudinal case study of Ach. Brito, a celebrated Portuguese manufacturer of soaps and toiletries. This study shows how, by the pursuance of a strategy derived from a heritage branding orientation, Ach. Brito – after a prolonged period of decline – achieved a dramatic strategic turnaround. The findings reveal how institutional heritage can be a strategic resource via its adoption and activation at both the product and corporate levels. Moreover, the study explains how the bi-lateral interplay between product and corporate brand levels can be mutually reinforcing. In instrumental terms, the study demonstrates how heritage can be activated and articulated in different ways. For instance, it can reposition both product and/or corporate brands; it can be meaningfully informed by product brand heritage and shape corporate heritage and can be of strategic importance to both medium-sized and small enterprises.

Purpose– The purpose of this empirical study was to introduce the theory of corporate heritage stewardship by focussing on the nascent corporate heritage identity domain. In particular, the research explores managers’ collective understanding of their organisation’s corporate heritage and how the latter is marshalled, and strategically represented, by them. The case study was undertaken in Great Britain’s oldest extant brewery. Established in 1698, Shepherd Neame is one of UK’s oldest companies.Design/methodology/approach– Empirical research informed by a theory-building, case study using qualitative data. This study draws on multiple sources of data generated through semi-structured interviews, the analysis of documents and non-participant observations. The analysis of data was facilitated by a multi-stage coding process and a prolonged hermeneutic interaction between data, emerging concepts and extant literature.Findings– Corporate heritage identity stewardship theory argues that the strategic enactment of a corporate heritage identity is predicated on a particular management mindset, which is meaningfully informed by three awareness dimensions expressed by managers (i.e. awareness of positionality, heritage, and custodianship). These awareness dimensions are underpinned by six managerial stewardship dispositions characterised by a sense of: continuance, belongingness, self, heritage, responsibility and potency. The findings are synthesised into a theoretical framework of managerial corporate heritage identity stewardship.Research limitations/implications– The insights from this empirical case study meaningfully advance our theoretical understanding of the corporate heritage identity domain. Whilst the empirical contribution of this study is qualitatively different from statistical/substantive generalisations, which seek to establish universal laws, the research insights are valuable in terms of theory-building in their own terms and are analytically generalisable. The insights from this study have the potential to inform further studies on corporate heritage identities, including research underpinned by a positivistic, and quantitative, methodology.Practical implications– The findings have utility for corporate marketing management, in that they illustrate how a collective corporate heritage mindset can both inform, as well as guide, managers in terms of their stewardship of their firm’s corporate heritage identity. The theoretical framework is of utility in practical terms, in that it reveals the multiple dimensions that are significant for management stewardship of a corporate heritage identity.Originality/value– The research confirms and expands the notion of management stewardship in corporate identity in corporate marketing contexts by identifying how a multi-dimensional managerial mindset has constitutive and instrumental relevance. Moreover, this study identifies the distinct characteristics of this corporate identity type – corporate heritage identity – which are revealed to have a saliency for managers. Both insights underpin the corporate heritage identity stewardship theory explicated in this article.

© The Author(s) 2018. Published by SAGE. Argues for a more expansive conceptualisation of the past’s relevance in, and for, marketing. Such a differentiated approach to the past is pregnant with possibilities in terms of advancing scholarship apropos temporal agency in marketing along with consumption practices. Symptomatic of this perspective is the increased mindfulness of the rich palate of past-related concepts. Significantly, the corporate heritage notion - because of its omni-temporal nature - represents a distinct and meaningful vector on the past by coalescing the past, present and future into a new type of temporality. As such, the authors reason this expansive conceptualisation of ‘the past-in-marketing’ is both timely and efficacious. Whilst sensitive of the importance of the historical method in marketing and the history of marketing scholarship and practice per se, this broader marketing approach to and of the past highlights the ideational and material manifestations of the past-in-the-present and an envisaged past-in-the future.

Purpose– The repertories of the corporate past perspective is introduced and articulated and is placed with the corporate communications and corporate marketing domains. The framework consolidates and expands the comprehension of multifarious actualisations of the past as a corporate-level phenomenon. The paper aims to discuss these issues.Design/methodology/approach– A literature review, which draws on the extant corporate heritage literature within corporate marketing and corporate communications along with other salient perspectives within social sciences, is integrated into a conceptual framework of past-related corporate-level concepts.Findings– The paper advances the extant literature by making a distinction between instrumental and foundational past-related corporate-level concepts. A framework is introduced and articulated detailing seven different modes of referencing the past of an organisation: corporate past, corporate memory, corporate history, corporate tradition, corporate heritage, corporate nostalgia, and corporate provenance.Research limitations/implications– The paper clarifies the current state of this nascent field of corporate marketing and communication scholarship concerned with the historicity of corporate-level phenomena and advances the conceptual understanding of the multiple ways in which links with an organisation's past can be understood and scrutinised offering an integrated framework of seven conceptual lenses for future research.Practical implications– Managers, by more fully comprehending the repertoires of the corporate past, are, the authors argue, better placed to discern whether the past is of material benefit to their organisations. If so, the repertoires of the corporate past perspective may enable managers to more effectively manage, maintain, and capitalise on their organisation's past in multiple ways.Originality value– This paper is substantively informed by both the corporate heritage literature and the salient literature from the social sciences. The introduction of a repertoire of the corporate past framework, arguably, represents an important contribution to the domain.

Celem artykułu jest pokazanie możliwości wykorzystania dziedzictwa przedsiębiorstwa w turystyce. Za przykład służy marka Mercedes-Benz i wykreowana wokół niej oferta turystyczna, na którą składają się muzea firmowe, miejsca pamięci i szlaki kulturowe. W pierwszej części artykułu przedstawiono założenia teoretyczne z zakresu teorii i zarządzania dziedzictwem oraz storytellingu. Dalej ukazano konkretne przykłady przełożenia mitu założycielskiego na atrakcje turystyczne związane z przedsiębiorstwem. The aim of the article is to show the possibilities of using corporate heritage for tourism on the example of Mercedes-Benz and the tourist offer created around the brand, which consists of corporate museums, places of memory and cultural routes. In the first part of the article the theoretical assumptions of heritage theory and heritage management, also assumptions of storytelling are presented. Further specific examples of the usage of the founding myth in tourist attractions associated with the company are showed.

Purpose – Introduces the special symposium entitled “Advances in corporate brand, corporate heritage, corporate identity and corporate marketing scholarship” and provides a synopsis of the five articles constituting this symposium. By means of context, celebrates the anniversaries of four marketing milestones apropos the formal introduction of the corporate brand concept (1995), the formal introduction of the corporate heritage notion (2006), the first special edition (in this journal) devoted to corporate identity (1997) and the formal introduction of the corporate marketing philosophical approach (1998). The latter – corporate marketing can be viewed as a revolution in marketing thought by noting that mutually beneficial company-stakeholder relationship can be based on corporate identities and corporate brands are not restricted to products and/or services. Design/Methodology/Approach - Taking a retrospective, explains the above four critical milestones and the corporate marketing revolution which have meaningfully advances marketing scholarship for the past 20 years. Findings – Provides 18 reflections of developments with the corporate brand and corporate identity fields. Also shows the seminal importance of EJM special editions on the territory dating back to 1997.

The notion of heritage branding orientation is introduced and explicated. Heritage branding orientation is designated as embracing both product and corporate brands and differs from corporate heritage brand orientation which has an explicit corporate focus. Empirical insights are drawn from an in-depth and longitudinal case study of Ach. Brito, a celebrated Portuguese manufacturer of soaps and toiletries. This study shows how, by the pursuance of a strategy derived from a heritage branding orientation, Ach. Brito - after a prolonged period of decline - achieved a dramatic strategic turnaround. The findings reveal how institutional heritage can be a strategic resource via its adoption and activation at both the product and corporate levels. Moreover, the study explains how the bi-lateral interplay between product and corporate brand levels can be mutually reinforcing. In instrumental terms, the study demonstrates how heritage can be activated and articulated in different ways. For instance, it can reposition both product and/or corporate brands; it can be meaningfully informed by product brand heritage and shape corporate heritage and can be of strategic importance to both medium-sized and small enterprises.

Purpose: Examines the attractiveness of the Tong Ren Tang (TRT) as a Chinese corporate heritage tourism brand and considers the significance of TRT for Chinese national identity. The study considers the saliency of Balmer’s augmented role identity notion vis-à-vis corporate heritage institutions/corporate brands. Insights are made from and for corporate heritage, heritage tourism and national identity literatures. Design/Methodology/Approach: A conceptual model comprising five hypotheses was developed and this informed a survey-based questionnaire administered to domestic tourists/customers visiting Tong Ren Tang’s flagship shop in Beijing. Findings: The attractiveness to domestic Chinese tourists/customers of the Tong Ren Tang corporate heritage tourism brand was found to be attributable to its multiple role identities: national, corporate, temporal, familial, and imperial. As such, this study lends credence to Balmer’s augmented role identity notion. Chinese domestic tourists/customers-as members of an ethnic Chinese community-in visiting TRT not only consume an extant corporate heritage by tangible and intangible means but can also be seen to express, and reaffirm, their sense of Chinese national identity. Practical implications: For Tong Ren Tang’s (TRT) managers there should be an appreciation that the attractiveness of TRT as a corporate heritage tourism brand rests not only on what it sells but also in what it symbolises in national and cultural terms. This finding is applicable to the managers many other corporate heritage/corporate heritage tourism brands. Social implications: Adopting a primordial perspective, the TRT pharmacy was found to be of singular significance to China’s national identity. Traditional Chinese Medicine, Confucian and Daoist religious/philosophical and China’s erstwhile Imperial polity are significant and enduring precepts of Chinese national identity. As such the TRT flagship shop/brand is of singular importance since China has eviscerated much of its cultural heritage –particularly in relation to its corporate heritage brands. Originality/value: The first empirical study to focus on corporate heritage tourism brands, and one of the first studies to examine a Chinese corporate heritage/corporate heritage tourism brand. Also significant in focussing on the Tong Ren Tang corporate heritage brand. Established in 1669, TRT’s history spans five centuries: a corporate provenance which is exceptional within the People’s Republic of China. The study links the corporate brand notion with the nascent corporate heritage brand domain and the established area of heritage tourism.

Purpose: Examines the attractiveness of the Tong Ren Tang as a Chinese corporate heritage tourism attraction. The study considers the saliency of Balmer’s augmented role identity notion vis-à-vis corporate heritage institutions/corporate brands. The study also applies the literature on nationality and ethnicity owing to this brand’s significance to Chinese national identity and Civilisation. Design/Methodology/Approach: A conceptual model comprising five hypotheses was developed and this informed a survey-based questionnaire administered to domestic tourists/customers visiting Tong Ren Tang’s flagship shop in Beijing. Findings: The attractiveness to domestic Chinese tourists/customers of the Tong Ren Tang corporate heritage tourism brand was found to be attributable to its multiple role identities: national, corporate, temporal, familial, and imperial. As such, this study lends credence to Balmer’s augmented role identity notion. Chinese domestic tourists/customers-as members of an ethnic Chinese community-in visiting TRT not only consume an extant corporate heritage by tangible and intangible means but can also be seen to express, and reaffirm, their sense of Chinese national identity. Practical implications: For Tong Ren Tang’s (TRT) managers there should be an appreciation that the attractiveness of TRT as a corporate heritage tourism brand rests not only on what it sells but also in what it symbolises in national and cultural terms. This finding is applicable to the managers many other corporate heritage/corporate heritage tourism brands. Social implications: Adopting a primordial perspective, the TRT pharmacy was found to be of singular significance to China’s national identity. Traditional Chinese Medicine, Confucian and Daoist religious/philosophical and China’s erstwhile Imperial polity are significant and enduring precepts of Chinese national identity. As such the TRT flagship shop/brand is of singular importance since China has eviscerated much of its cultural heritage –particularly in relation to its corporate heritage brands. Originality/value: The first empirical study to focus on corporate heritage tourism brands, and one of the first studies to examine a Chinese corporate heritage/corporate heritage tourism brand. Also significant in focussing on the Tong Ren Tang corporate heritage brand. Established in 1669, TRT’s history spans five centuries: a corporate provenance which is exceptional within the People’s Republic of China. The study links the corporate brand notion with the nascent corporate heritage brand domain and the established area of heritage tourism. Keywords: China, corporate brand, corporate heritage, tourism. Paper type: Research paper.

Recently, considerable academic and management interest has focussed on corporate heritage and, in particular on the corporate heritage brand notion. This article provides a thorough overview of the field and includes latest developments in the territory including the formal introduction of the organisational heritage concept. In this paper the contexts, foundations, fundamentals, and advances in the broad corporate heritage field are outlined. This critique also examines key constructs within the domain including corporate heritage brands, corporate heritage identity, and organisational heritage. Both theoretical and managerial aspects of the field are addressed. Drawing on the extant literature, the article explores five themes relating the area: contexts, foundations, fundamentals, advances, and empirical insights. Reference is made to prominent case study research from Great Britain and China namely Shepherd Neame (Britain’s oldest brewery with an official founding date of 1698), and Tong Ren Tang (the renowned traditional Chinese medicine corporate brand dating back to 1669).

This study breaks new ground becomes it (i): considers a non-western (a Chinese) corporate heritage brand and (ii): for the first time within the corporate heritage brand/corporate heritage canon, adopts an explicit consumer perspective. . Significantly–taking an overt corporate heritage/corporate heritage brand stance- this empirical study reveals why a corporate heritage brand such as Tong Ren Tang (TRT) – founded in 1669-is highly meaningful to consumers from one generation to another. The researchers marshal the first four of Balmer’s (2013) criteria of corporate heritage entities in order to verify its corporate heritage credentials and explain its attractiveness to customers. As such, it was found that TRT is meaningfully linked to the past, present and prospective future (Balmer’s criterion of omni temporality); has durable and constant organisational traits (Balmer’s criterion of institutional trait consistency); has customer and stakeholder faithfulness for a minimum of three generations (Balmer’s criterion of tri-generational loyalty); and has acquired meaningful non corporate role identities vis-à-vis Chinese national identity and China’s imperial identity (Balmer’s criterion of augmented role identities). TRT was found to be attractive to consumers owing to its core and augmented role identities following Balmer’s (2013) augmented role identity theoretical perspective. These findings explain why Tong Ren Tang has endured and flourished from one generation to another and accounts for its celebrated status within China and the wider Chinese diaspora.

In this article we formally introduce and explicate the organisational heritage notion. The authors conclude organisational heritage can be designated in three broad ways as: (1) organisational heritage identity as the perceived and reminisced omni-temporal traits – both formal/normative and utilitarian/societal – of organisational members’ work organisation; (2) organisational heritage identification as organisational members’ identification/self-categorisation vis-à-vis these perceived and reminisced omni-temporal traits of their work organisation, and (3) organisational heritage cultural identification as 0rganisational members’ multi-generational identification/self-categorisation vis-à-vis the perceived and reminisced omni-temporal traits of their work organisation’s corporate culture. To date, advances in heritage studies at the institutional-level have primarily taken place within the broad corporate marketing paradigm. However, we are mindful of developments in the organisational memory field and the need to address and engage with organisational behaviour/management scholarship in the broad organisational identity domain. The realisation that there is a distinct genus of corporate heritage institution (corporate heritage identity) and brand (corporate heritage brand) represents a seismic shift in how scholars theorise about heritage institutions and corporate heritage brands and how the aforementioned are managed. In the development of a field concept introduction and explanation is a key means through which an area can progress and the explicit aim of this article is to achieve the aforementioned by our elucidation of the organisational heritage notion. We argue the literatures on corporate heritage identity, organisational identity, and organisational memory are of assistance in appreciating the saliency of organisational heritage. As such, by building on embryonic scholarship in the corporate heritage this article aims to explicate the nature and significance of organisational heritage. The implications of organisational heritage for corporate heritage brands are also delineated.