In both marketing research and business practice, the study of corporate brand heritage has gained growing interest. Although, the field of heritage is rather widely analysed, a closer investigation reveals that there is a lack of research that covers the deeply embedded associations toward a company or brand with a heritage, and their effects on the overall brand performance from a customer’s perspective. That said, previous quantitative studies regarding corporate brand heritage fall back on traditional and basic explicit self-reporting scales. However, an increasing number of neuroeconomic studies indicate that customers are not fully aware of their thoughts and opinions. In fact, most mental processes are of so-called implicit nature, taking place hidden in the unconscious and automatic mind. Yet, established models of corporate brand heritage are missing implicit processes completely. Against this backdrop, the aim of the current paper is to fill this research gap. For that reason, a holistic framework of dual information processing is derived with reference to corporate brand heritage. Furthermore, related explicit and implicit measures are developed and applied to capture the dual facets of corporate brand heritage. The empirical results provide evidence that both heritage facets, explicit corporate brand heritage, but in particular implicit corporate brand heritage have a crucial impact on the degree of attachment toward the corporate brand.

• Klaus-Peter Wiedmann(Leibniz University of Hannover, Germany)
• Steffen Schmidt(Leibniz University of Hannover, Germany)
• Sascha Langner(Leibniz University of Hannover, Germany)
• Levke Albertsen(Leibniz University of Hannover, Germany)
• Michael Schiessl(eye square GmbH, Germany)
• Frank Buckler(Success Drivers GmbH, Germany)