Legacy Management in Theory and in Practice

Miruna Radu-Lefebvre (), James Davis, Alfredo de Massis, William Gartner, Sarah Jack () and Gideon Markman ()
Additional contact information
Miruna Radu-Lefebvre: Audencia Business School
James Davis: UWA - The University of Western Australia
Alfredo de Massis: Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Lancaster University, Zhejiang University [Hangzhou, China]
William Gartner: Babson College - Babson College
Gideon Markman: CSU - Colorado State University [Fort Collins]

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Abstract: Though often invoked as a source of continuity, identity, and strategy, legacy remains conceptually underdeveloped and practically elusive. Leaders frequently grapple with how to preserve what matters from the past while enabling renewal, especially during succession, pivots, market disruption, or institutional change. Without understanding what legacy is, and how it functions and can be managed, organizations risk clinging to outmoded practices—or, conversely, discarding their most valuable identity anchors. We address this gap by advancing our understanding of legacy as a co-constructed process embedded in relationships, artifacts, and intergenerational meaning-making. Across nine contemporary research examples, we explore how legacy operates at individual, organizational, and societal levels, and how it can serve as an asset, a liability, or a paradox, simultaneously enabling continuity, triggering conflict, and motivating prosocial change. Drawing on diverse theoretical lenses and settings—from family firms in Honduras to multinational corporations in Sweden; from faith-based entrepreneurship to state-owned enterprises in post-Soviet Russia—we show that legacy is a symbolic and material force that influences strategy, innovation, ethics, and governance. Our integrative framework reveals how legacy can be cultivated, reinterpreted, or retired—and how organizations can deliberately manage legacy to foster stewardship, prevent inertia, and build trust among stakeholders.

Keywords: legacy; continuity; strategy; liability; ethics; governance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026-02
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-05535573v1
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Published in Academy of Management Perspectives, 2026, 40 (1), pp.1-20. ⟨10.5465/amp.2025.0240⟩

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-05535573

DOI: 10.5465/amp.2025.0240

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