Examining the Role of Corporate Heritage and Brand Equity of Time-Honored Firms on Organizational Transformation

Management scholars recognize corporate heritage values as crucial drivers that reinforce branding and performance. Our empirical study of heritage values focuses on factors of culture, entrepreneurship and proprietary knowledge to explain how value-based corporate heritage increases over time within privately or state-owned firms. A sample of 120 Chinese time-honored firms was analyzed to establish the significance of heritage values in the facilitation of brand credentials. Our results indicate that corporate heritage values have a positive impact on both branding and performance. Firm inheritance exercises positive moderating effects between proprietary knowledge and performance and between entrepreneurship and branding. Furthermore, both entrepreneurship and proprietary knowledge in privately owned firms significantly affect performance, whereas heritage culture only affects branding. In contrast, entrepreneurship and propriety knowledge in state-owned firms positively affect branding but do not affect performance. This study offers insights into the generalized impact of corporate heritage values on brand equity and performance.