Building business resilience to external shocks: Conceptualising the role of social networks to small tourism & hospitality businesses

Micro and small enterprises comprise the majority of the tourism and hospitality businesses globally and contribute heavily to the economic livelihood of many communities. However, their distinctive characteristics also make them among the most vulnerable to the impacts of external shocks. This paper proposes a conceptual model of how social networks may help micro-small tourism and hospitality businesses build resilience to disasters and crises. Informed by concepts of social capital theory, business continuity goals, and the resource-based view, we argue that social networks are a crucial factor in assisting the survival and recovery of micro-small tourism and hospitality businesses after external shocks through the provision of greater access to a multitude of resources (natural, physical, financial, human, social). Drawing on relevant literature on tourism disaster and crisis management as well as small business management and social network research, we develop a series of propositions and an agenda for future studies. In doing so, this paper contributes to currently limited theoretical work in the tourism disaster and crisis management literature while encouraging greater research attention to micro-small tourism and hospitality businesses as a means of helping to foster more resilient businesses in the face of possible future shocks.