Signaling stewardship and the value of family in a brand heritage Identity: A cross-cultural study of wineries

Brand heritage identity (BHI) has been examined in single corporate cases, often of family firms, in a specific country, to reveal a deep theoretical understanding of the concept and how BHIs are created. Our study complements this research by providing a large-scale empirical study of BHI in family firms across countries. Specifically, using signaling theory as a framework, this study investigates how country-level importance of family values, as well as firm age, influence the use of BHI and drive marketing performance for family businesses. BHI is a signal that helps stakeholders resolve market asymmetries and this signal is bolstered in countries where family is deemed more important. Firm age is an important moderator. The findings demonstrate that in countries where family, as a key social unit, is more important, firms signal competitiveness via BHI, which in turn relates positively to marketing performance.