Objective: Entrepreneurial sensemaking represents a fundamental cognitive mechanism governing how family enterprises interpret ambiguous market signals, enact opportunities, and navigate transgenerational succession. Despite expanding interest, the contemporary literature exhibits two major shortcomings: an enduring theoretical disconnect between macro-level socioemotional wealth (SEW) constructs and micro-level cognitive actions, and a pervasive neglect of power asymmetries and affective mechanisms during collective interpretation. To resolve these limitations, this study conducts an integrated review synthesizing bibliometric network mapping with qualitative thematic synthesis across a 15-year period (2010–2025). The primary objective is to delineate the intellectual evolution of the field, uncover its underlying microfoundations, and propose an integrative, testable conceptual framework.

Methodology: We employed a mixed-method design comprising a Bibliometric Systematic Literature Review (B-SLR) integrated with Qualitative Thematic Synthesis (Braun & Clarke, 2006), adhering strictly to the PRISMA 2020 statement. A comprehensive search query grounded in the CIMO (Context, Intervention, Mechanisms, Outcomes) framework was executed within the Web of Science and Scopus Core Collections. Following duplicate removal and rigorous two-stage independent screening by two researchers (demonstrating high inter-rater reliability with Cohen’s Kappa = 0.89), a final corpus of 164 peer-reviewed core journal articles was established. Co-occurrence, co-citation, and co-authorship networks were examined using VOSviewer, CiteSpace, and the R-based Bibliometrix tool. Subsequently, inductive and deductive qualitative thematic synthesis was performed on the core articles within each cluster to extract cognitive, emotional, and structural micro foundations.

Results: The findings document an epistemological shift from descriptive, individual-level Weickian perspectives toward an interactive, multi-level micro foundational paradigm. Co-authorship networks disclose pronounced geographical concentration, with over 71% of research activity anchored within Anglo-European academic institutions, leaving emerging and non-Western economies peripheral. Burst detection analysis reveals significant conceptual shifts after 2020 toward socioemotional wealth preservation (burst strength = 9.21), affective and emotional anchoring (8.45), power dynamics and discursive hegemony (7.88), and transgenerational continuity (7.12). The thematic synthesis across the four intellectual clusters indicates that entrepreneurial sensemaking in family firms is neither strictly rational nor harmoniously consensual. Rather, it operates as an emotionally charged, politically contested, and trans generationally negotiated process. These insights culminate in an overarching conceptual framework (Figure 6) underpinned by five formals, testable research propositions (P1_P5). The framework details how ambiguous environmental cues are sequentially filtered through SEW preservation goals, constrained by the founder’s authoritative sensegiving and discursive hegemony, amplified or suppressed by affective anchoring, and negotiated across generations to yield strategic renewal or organizational inertia.

Contribution and Practical Implications: This study makes a distinct theoretical contribution by repositioning sensemaking from a descriptive background context into an explanatory micro-foundational engine, bridging mainstream SEW scholarship with critical Foucault-inspired perspectives on power and emotionality. For practitioners, the framework provides actionable diagnostic heuristics for founders, next-generation successors, and business consultants to manage cognitive misalignment and emotional friction during strategic renewal and generational transitions. Finally, a structured future research agenda offering eight prioritized research questions with suitable methodological pathways is established.