Title: Towards an understanding of corporate heritage: its evolution from 2006 to 2019 and an agenda for future inquiry

Authors: Tugra Nazli Akarsu; Reza Marvi; Pantea Foroudi

Addresses: Southampton Business School, University of Southampton, Southampton, England, UK ' The Business School, Middlesex University London, London, England, UK ' The Business School, Middlesex University London, London, England, UK

Abstract: Having a meaningful connotation with the longevity of the existence, the concept of heritage is being considered as a key element for international organisations to sustain competitive advantage. The ample research on heritage made an enquiry to the domain of the research essential. Based on ISI Web of Knowledge, this paper evaluates the knowledge structure of corporate and brand heritage by reviewing 78 relevant articles with 941 citations in 50 journals from the business and management domain, between January 2006 and November 2019. By adopting co-citation analysis and multidimensional scaling, we identified five research groups. Co-occurrence network and algorithmic historiography were also utilised to identify the key themes, the emergence and evolution of the seminal works. Based on the recent highly cited papers, a future model was proposed for researchers as well as international marketers that can provide insights on the evolving topics and trend areas within the research domain.

Keywords: corporate heritage; heritage; bibliometric; co-citation analysis; co-occurrence; algorithmic historiography.

DOI: 10.1504/EJIM.2026.151138

European Journal of International Management, 2026 Vol.28 No.2, pp.248 - 287

Received: 27 Jul 2020
Accepted: 21 Sep 2020
Published online: 15 Jan 2026 *

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