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.