arbiter
JournalsAccount

Firms as Quasi-Traditions: The Moral Backbone of Social Legacy

Nicholas Burton et al.

Academy of Management Perspectives2025https://doi.org/10.5465/amp.2023.0296article
AJG 4ABDC A
Weight
0.46

Abstract

In family firms, social legacies have been characterized as fragile and likely to be abandoned as firms face cycles of crises and change that impact the utility of such legacies, and yet we know that social legacies can and do endure across time and space, even beyond the tenure of the founding family. We explore intergenerational dynamics in family firms and specifically address the “social legacy” concept, which has received remarkably little empirical and theoretical attention. We elaborate how social legacies are shaped across time and space by drawing upon a historical-archival study of Rathbones PLC, a firm with a near-300-year history, to illustrate that firms can be understood as quasi-traditions and, furthermore, that a social legacy can provide firms with a moral backbone that anchors the quasi-tradition to ensure continuity amidst periods of crisis. For practitioners, we highlight that stewarding firms as quasi-traditions is an underappreciated, yet critical capability.

4 citations

Open via your library →

Cite this paper

https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.5465/amp.2023.0296

Or copy a formatted citation

@article{nicholas2025,
  title        = {{Firms as Quasi-Traditions: The Moral Backbone of Social Legacy}},
  author       = {Nicholas Burton et al.},
  journal      = {Academy of Management Perspectives},
  year         = {2025},
  doi          = {https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.5465/amp.2023.0296},
}

Paste directly into BibTeX, Zotero, or your reference manager.

Flag this paper

Firms as Quasi-Traditions: The Moral Backbone of Social Legacy

Flags are reviewed by the Arbiter methodology team within 5 business days.

Evidence weight

0.46

Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40

F · citation impact0.37 × 0.4 = 0.15
M · momentum0.60 × 0.15 = 0.09
V · venue signal0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03
R · text relevance †0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20

† Text relevance is estimated at 0.50 on the detail page — for your query’s actual relevance score, open this paper from a search result.