Family heritage in corporate heritage branding: opportunities and risks

The chapter explores the opportunities and risks associated with addressing family heritage in the context of corporate heritage branding. Family businesses are particularly interesting for the communication of corporate heritage , as the heritage of the company and that of the owner family are usually closely connected. Firms communicating their corporate heritage often aim at assuring stakeholders that central traits of the company will endure even in the future. Such trait constancy can become embodied, reinforced, and extended by the inclusion fo family heritage. However family heritage can become a liability when stakeholders discover negative traits in the family's past.