Development of Time-honored Brands in China: Analyzing Enterprises’ Value System in Three Senses

Abstract

This paper explores the construction mechanism of time-honored brand companies’ value system. Honorary title, tradition, technology, geographic space, and culture are fundamental concepts that time-honored brands employ to establish their values. These five concepts simultaneously construct values in different dimensions and constitute the value system of the time-honored brands. Anthropologist David Graeber (2001, 2005) points out that scholars usually use the term value in three senses: sociological or philosophical, economic, and linguistic. Among the three usages, the economic often contradicts the other two. In contrast, this paper shows that the employment of the three senses is feasible and necessary for understanding the value system of the time-honored brand.