Heritage craft firms face a difficult dilemma: how to act as custodians of fragile traditions while staying viable in a rapidly changing world. This paper explores how such firms sustain endangered crafts by treating inherited knowledge not as static history but as living, working practice. Based on a qualitative multiple-case study of two passementerie (ornamental trimmings) workshops in France and Italy and a blade-grinding firm in France, we show how continuity arises from deliberate, everyday acts of custodianship. "Tangible knowledge" includes historical machines-valued for their versatility, accessible design, and durability-as well as archives that preserve technical memory and design continuity. "Intangible knowledge" involves tacit technical expertise and artistic capabilities transmitted through long-term training and embodied practice. Together, these material and human inheritances sustain both creative renewal and historical continuity. Beyond the context of endangered heritage crafts, these insights offer practical guidance for firms in sectors such as luxury goods, haute cuisine, bespoke manufacturing, and artisanal design-where preserving distinctive capabilities and long-term know-how is essential to sustaining relevance and value.
Despite a proliferation of research, the behavioral ethics literature remains fragmented, making it difficult for managers to translate findings into practice. A common pitfall is assuming that unethical behaviors that appear identical stem from the same cause and should be managed the same way. Our applied integration addresses this gap by synthesizing the literature into a cohesive, causally driven framework. We identify three core causal pathways-perceptual, regulatory, and calculative-that underlie unethical actions. This framework links these pathways to three distinct forms of misconduct: ethical errors (due to misperception), ethical lapses (due to self-regulatory failure), and ethical violations (due to deliberate calculation). By distinguishing unethical behaviors based on their causal roots, this framework provides a more precise diagnostic tool, enabling managers to implement targeted interventions and advance practical guidance for the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of workplace misconduct.
