Justifying the Continuation of Legacy Brands

This chapter analyzes the case study presented in Chapters 2 and 3 . Through the succession of YAMAMOTO-NORITEN’s 175-year-old established brand “Maruume,” it clarifies how established brand assets are maintained and developed across generations and how successor entrepreneurs are cultivated. Each generation, from the first to the seventh, repeatedly innovated at the procurement, manufacturing, and sales stages, establishing the Maruume brand as a trust asset, regional cultural asset, and social relational asset. Successors, who hold an ascribed status through the name succession system, simultaneously attain an achieved status through performance, securing dual legitimacy. Furthermore, a co-management system, the son-in-law adoption system, and ties to the Nihonbashi region form the institutional foundation for brand succession. Successor development involves staged placements in field operations, overseas branches, and headquarters, cultivating managerial competence and autonomy through experiential learning. Across generations, the long-term interaction between “proving the successor’s capability” and “deriving benefits from inherited assets” has led to cumulative innovation that strengthens the brand. Ultimately, the successor entrepreneur assumes the dual role of preserving traditionTradition while introducing innovation, thereby achieving the sustainability of the long-established enterprise. This chapter examines the research question: Why is the mission of safeguarding long-established brand assets more readily inherited within family businesses, and how can they cultivate successors capable of fulfilling this mission? It explores this through the perspectives of “the accumulation and utilization of long-established brands,” “the process of cultivating successor entrepreneurs,” and “justifying the transgenerational succession of long-established brands.” Finally, it proposes a model of “Legacy Accumulative Chain.”