Intangible Assets and Successor Entrepreneurs

Japan has many long-established companies that have built enduring brands (invisible assets) across generations. These enduring brands are passed down from generation to generation, building competitive advantage. Entrepreneurs in companies with lasting brands carry on this mission, and their actions create a legacy that strengthens the brand across generations. Typically, brand formation requires extensive time. It necessitates not only providing goods and services but also building the business systems that generate them and ensuring business succession. A long-established brand is not merely a trademark; it is a totality of intangible assets—history, culture, trust relationships, technology, etc.—forming the foundation that supports the company’s sustainable competitive advantage. Its succession is deeply intertwined with issues of social recognition, including symbolic capital such as family name and prestige, and successors face the dilemma of balancing tradition and innovation. This study employs a historical approach to empirically examine the mechanisms of long-established brand building and successor entrepreneur formation, drawing on insights from management resource theory, business succession theory, and family business research.