Corporate museums as heritage vehicles: a comparative analysis between family and non-family businesses

The heritage marketing strategy often calls for the employment of a corporate museum to represent the firm’s history in the eyes of internal and external observers. However, to date there has been no attempt to identify the distinctive values underlying the use of corporate museums by family firms – as opposed to non-family firms – for nurturing customers’ understanding and appreciation of the company and its products. This paper aims to address this gap and investigate the identity values that drive the establishment of corporate museums by family firms and non-family firms. Using a comparative case-study (CCS) approach, the paper examines the values underlying two examples of corporate museums promoted by two different firms, one with a high level and one with a low level of family control. The study reveals differing distinctive values between family and non-family corporate museums.