Abstract

"Honoring the past and embracing the future: Insights from a micro history of the Stornoway Trust (1923-2021)"

Helen Haugh, University of Cambridge (h.haugh@jbs.cam.ac.uk)

This paper investigates how the Stornoway Trust business model evolved from dependence at founding on landed estate income sources, such as rents, feu duties, and game fees, to a portfolio comprising multiple new income streams, such as royalties and service delivery contracts. The Stornoway Trust was founded on the gift from Lord Leverhulme to Stornoway Town Council in 1923 of 55 000 acres after abandoning his economic development projects on the Isle of Lewis. The research explicates how external contextual changes and internal organizational processes impact the founding mission and business model innovation. Between 1923 and 1938 the Trust business model remained largely unchanged since founding. During this period the Trust’s mission was the betterment of the estate. In 1938 however, the government requisitioned part of the Stornoway Trust estate for the war effort and after the war, recompensed the Trust for its use of parts of the estate. After World War II, while adhering to the founding aim to better the estate, the Trust extended the mission to also supporting community economic development, such as attracting industries to the island, and supporting entrepreneurship. Notably, the Trust chair remained in situ until 1960 and thus, after business model stasis between 1923 and 1938, coordinated mission elaboration and business model innovation. The analysis of documents from the Unilever archives, Port Sunlight, and the Stornoway Trust archive offers some useful insights into institutional and organizational legacy maintenance and change.