Coping flexibility and psychological resilience: small tourism entrepreneurs’ coping strategies during the Covid-19 pandemic

Abstract

While the current literature has acknowledged the pivotal role of coping in safeguarding psychological resilience, the underlying mechanism remains unclear. This study investigates how small tourism entrepreneurs cope with stress and maintain psychological resilience during the Covid-19 pandemic. Drawing upon interviews with 18 small tourism entrepreneurs in New Zealand, this paper finds that coping flexibility plays a key role in maintaining psychological resilience. Specifically, the broad repertoire of coping strategies, strategy-situation fit, and variability in coping strategies all constitute coping flexibility. Also, personal resourcefulness and social resourcefulness are two key conditions for coping flexibility to emerge. A conceptual framework is proposed to advance the understanding of how coping can contribute to psychological resilience through coping flexibility and resourcefulness. It has significant implications for small businesses in terms of managing a long-lasting crisis and designing effective interventions.