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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Sustain. Tour.
Sec. Disaster/Crisis Management and Resilience in Tourism
Volume 4 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/frsut.2025.1536837

Constructing Recreational Farm Operator Strategic Leadership in VUCA Environment

Provisionally accepted
Chih Yu Hsiao Chih Yu Hsiao *
  • National Pingtung University of Science and Technology, Pingtung, Taiwan

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    This study aims to establish strategic leadership mechanisms for recreational farm operators in a VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous) environment and to explore the coping strategies they employ during crises. Through interviews with 20 recreational farm operators in Taiwan, the study applied strategic leadership theory to design the interview framework and develop response mechanisms. The results indicate that recreational farm operators possess strategic leadership capabilities such as forecasting, challenging, interpreting, decision-making, alignment, and learning, which enable them to effectively manage uncertainties in a VUCA environment. Their coping strategies include environmental improvement, product enhancement, digitalization, market channel optimization, and outdoor activity development. This study not only highlights the practical experiences of the operators but also utilizes strategic leadership theory to establish mechanisms capable of addressing dynamic challenges, providing insightful guidance for recreational farm and agritourism operators.

    Keywords: Recreational farm, VUCA environment, strategic leadership, coping strategy, agritourism business

    Received: 29 Nov 2024; Accepted: 13 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Hsiao. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Chih Yu Hsiao, National Pingtung University of Science and Technology, Pingtung, Taiwan

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.