Entrepreneurship and family firms via individual, collective and family level. A systematic literature review

This article focuses on the multi-subject opportunity recognition processes in family firms, differentiating the mutual impact between the individual cognitions of single subjects and the collective cognitions shared by the multiple subjects. In doing so we propose an interpretative framework based on two perspectives; following a deterministic approach we outline the impact of a collective cognition on individual cognitions of the participant within organizational structures or controlled systems and, on the other hand, we adopt a voluntaristic approach to understand the impact of individual cognitions on collective cognitions in terms of intuition, emotional support, and perception. Specifically, in accordance with the latter perspective, we examine the heterogeneous cognitions in which a family team can be embedded, analyzing such differences in terms of prospected future market conditions (time) and value congruence (different individual cognitions) of family members. Such conditions may facilitate the constructive process of family members’ opportunity recognition.