Resilience in the context of two traditional Spanish rural sectors: an exploratory study

Abstract

Purpose – The present study examines ways in which micro and small business owners and managers in the olive oil industry seek to adapt to emerging challenges and build resilience. In an increasingly demanding business environment, the ability to become resilient and be able to adapt to new or existing challenges is crucial. However, in what ways do micro and small business owners and managers seek to adapt to emerging challenges and build resilience? The present study examines these issues among micro and small wine and olive oil producers. Design/methodology/approach – An online questionnaire was designed to gather the views of respondents on challenges, impacts of these challenges and strategies they consider to adapt to current challenges. A total of 93 winery owners/managers and 52 olive growers participated. Findings – The findings identify increasing costs, decreasing consumption and the effects of the economic crisis as the most significant barriers, with impacts in the form of loss of trust in government institutions and loss of confidence in a soon economic recovery. To adapt and become resilient, enhancing promotional, educational and diversification activities, such as starting or growing exports, or becoming more involved in technology and social media are perceived as fundamental business strategies. Originality/value – In considering elements related to the theory of resilience, the study provides empirical evidence of adaptive strategies among micro and small businesses, as well as ways to achieve resilience. Overall, the findings have important socio-economic implications for various stakeholders, including the sectors involved, government agencies, and ultimately for consumers, and local communities where businesses operate.

Psychometric Evidence of the Brief Resilience Scale (BRS) and Modeling Distinctiveness of Resilience from Depression and Stress

“…Resilience has been a central focus of the empirical research, applied psychology and public health for decades (Duarte Alonso, 2015;McGreavy, 2015;Abramson timism (Lee et al, 2008), satisfaction with life (Abolghasemi & Varaniyab, 2010), mindfulness (Keyes & Pidgeon, 2013) and equally strongly but negatively with depression (Hardy et al, 2002(Hardy et al, , 2004 and Negative Affect (Singh & Yu, 2010) as reviewed by Singh et al (2016).…”

The role of entrepreneurial orientation in crisis management: evidence from family firms in enterprising communities

“…As we have described in prior sections, the local context has an immediate impact on both EO and crisis management in family firms (Duarte Alonso, 2015; Ljungkvist and Boers, 2016). Firms are embedded in a local context, which can both hinder and contribute to crisis management.…”

“…This autonomy is, however, embedded in a local context. However, it is necessary to emphasize greater internal autonomy than external autonomy (Nordqvist et al , 2008), as all firms are rather small and thereby more vulnerable (Duarte Alonso, 2015; Falkner and Hiebl, 2015; Heinze and Henschel, 2020; Henschel and Durst, 2016). The reactive leadership style is concerned with an “event-driven” strategy; the firm lacks a coherent strategy on how to deal with a crisis.…”

“…Therefore, it is reasonable to investigate the peculiarities of family ownership by taking a family firm perspective on crisis management. Eventually, there is reason to believe that in each phase of the crisis management process, there will be different solutions, depending on the cause and consequences of the crisis, which has also been suggested by other authors (Duarte Alonso, 2015;Ratten, 2020). Hong et al (2012) introduced a process model for crisis management, which includes four sequential steps, i.e.…”

Financial resilience of Spanish wineries during the COVID-19 lockdown

“…The subsidies firms receive represent a valuable resource to face different challenges that companies face throughout their life span (DeYoung, 2020;Duarte-Alonso, 2015;Duarte-Alonso and Bressan, 2015). Specifically, in the Spanish case, the wine sector accessed subsidies for COVID-19 from the government, as detailed by Marco-Lajara et al (2021).…”