How recreational farm operators use dynamic capabilities to respond to COVID-19 pandemic.

Abstract

The outbreak of the COVID-19 Pandemic has devastated economic activities around the world. The tourism industry is facing severe challenges, such as reduced tourist flow and the lack of tourist consumption at destinations. Recreational farms are one of the business types of agricultural tourism in Taiwan and have the characteristics of small and medium-sized agriculture businesses. The operator is facing an uncertain environment in the epidemic market, and the operator's dynamic capability is considered to be effective in coping with the current environment. In this study, 20 selected recreational farms were interviewed to explore how operators use dynamic capabilities to make responses. The results show that recreational farms have the three elements of dynamic capabilities: sense, seize, and transform, to change farm marketing channels and develop new products or services to respond to the new market. Recreational farm operators adopted resource optimization, computerization, and cost control strategies to respond to the market.Management implicationsA successful implementation of recreational farm offers requires-the reallocation of resources,-the planning of new products and services, and - the improvement of service processes to create new business and to address additional target groups.The COVID-19 pandemic forces a systematic positioning or repositioning of the business.