The Uses of Corporate Heritage: A Critical Approach

Abstract

Corporate enterprises have long embraced their historical legacy, preserving not only documents in their archives, but also buildings, and old equipment from their past operations. Scholars in management and marketing studies have dedicated attention to exploring the heritage of business organizations since the 2000s, primarily interested in how firms leverage their historical legacies to enhance performance, build identity, and ensure long-term success. This has, however, developed independently from the interdisciplinary field of cultural heritage studies, which largely overlooks how corporate enterprises deal with what they see as their own heritage. The paper bridges this divide by reviewing existing heritage approaches in management and marketing studies literature and exploring the potential of addressing this corporate heritage discourse in the field of critical heritage studies. It argues that since socioeconomic interests invariably influence heritage processes, engaging with this corporate heritage discourse may enhance our understanding of the complex interplay between organizations, heritage, and societal dynamics in the broader context of heritage studies.