Our research focuses on rhetorical history, a potent resource for strategy-makers. We aim to shed light on how a firm can ensure its rhetorical history resonates with its customers, the mnemonic devices that underpin this effort, and the subprocesses that mobilize historical resources. Our investigation centers on the strategic use of history in a nearly 250-year-old family-owned hotel in Sorrento, Italy. Our findings unveil three sub-processes strategy-makers employ to establish history-derived dynamic capabilities: sensing new opportunities, using identities to seize opportunities, and transforming processes to integrate renewed historical assets. We present a theoretical framework that elucidates how family firms can channel history-as-resource and history-as-dynamic-capability to achieve success and longevity across generations.
