Purpose – This study explores how entrepreneurial support organizations (ESOs) enable SME manufacturing firms to orchestrate their resources for innovation processes in response to evolving market demands.

Design/methodology/approach – This paper draws on a case study approach comprising 26 interviews with ESO key actors and SME managers, as well as archival material from these organizations.

Findings – The results indicate that the resource orchestration (RO)–driven translation capabilities of ESO staff across different business contexts constitute central mechanisms in the innovative solutions of SMEs. However, the SME managers’ interpretation of the RO mechanisms that generated innovative solutions diverged from that of the former group.

Originality – This study contributes by extending resource orchestration theory beyond the firm level, uncovering the mediating role of entrepreneurial support organizations (ESOs) in shaping innovation-oriented RO processes in SMEs. By identifying the microfoundations of ESO-driven translation capabilities and their divergent interpretations by SME managers, the paper offers novel insights into the contextual contingencies of RO and provides a more nuanced understanding of how external actors foster innovation under dynamic market conditions.

Purpose – This study explores how family firm retail managers orchestrate firm resources to adapt to shifting market dynamics.Design/methodology/approach – The present paper draws upon a case study approach, covering 30 interviews with family firm managers, along with archival material from 22 family owned micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs).Findings – The findings suggest that managerial interactive orchestration capabilities act as key enablers shaping the evolution and configuration of resource orchestration (RO) practices in retail family firms.Originality/value – This study introduces the novel concept of family firm managerial interactive creativity to explain how retail managers shape distinct resource orchestration configurations for adapting to uncertain market dynamics.

Objectives – the purpose of this paper is to explore how family-owned real estate firm managers entrepreneurially orchestrate their resources to enable firm strategy in an environment characterized by uncertainty. Literature – based on the seminal work of Sirmon et al. (2007, 2011) on resource orchestration (RO), this study advances the research of Chirico et al. (2011), among others, on how the family dimension influences family firm managers' RO for strategic enabling.Approach – this paper draws on a case study using 21 interviews with family firm managers and archival data from family-owned Swedish real estate firmsResults – The results indicate how the family dimension in family-owned real estate firms influence family firm managers’ strategic RO.Implications and Value - Three family-based strategic enabling mechanisms and their underlying microfoundations are identified, explaining how real estate family firm managerial RO configurations are shaped: (1) flexible network structuring, (2), incremental flexibility and tenant focus bundling, and (3) cautious and societal flexible leveraging. The manifestation of these RO configurations highlights how managers of family-owned real estate firms can facilitate firm strategy in conditions of economic uncertainty.

Purpose: This study explores how retail family firm managers’ cognitive capabilities are used to enable firm strategy in a context of economic uncertainty.

Design/methodology/approach: This paper is based on a case study using 31 interviews with family firm managers and archival data from retail micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs).

Findings: The results indicate how managerial cognitive enabling mechanisms shape the manifestation of retail family firm dynamic capabilities (DCs) configurations.

Originality/value: Three retail managerial cognitive strategic enabling mechanisms and their microfoundations are identified, explaining how three retail family firm DC configurations are shaped: (1) retail family firm customization-based sensing, (2) retail family firm lateral seizing and (3) retail family firm trust-based reconfiguring. The manifestation of these DC configurations illuminates how retail family firm managers can enable firm strategy in a context of economic uncertainty.

Purpose – this study explores how retail family firm managers’ cognitive capabilities are used to enabling firm strategy to encounter economic decline. 

Design/methodology/approach – the paper is based on an inductive case study and consists of 30 interviews with retail family firm managers. 

Findings – the results suggest how managerial cognitive enabling mechanisms shape the manifestation of retail family firm dynamic capabilities (DC) configurations. 

Originality – three retail managerial cognitive strategic enabling mechanisms and microfoundations are identified, which in turn explain how the following retail family firm DC configurations are shaped: (1) retail family firm customization-based sensing, (2) retail family firm lateral seizing and (3) retail family firm trust-based reconfiguring. The manifestation of these DC configurations illuminate how retail family firm manager enabling firm strategy to encounter economic decline.