The influence of board governance structure on tourism enterprises resilience – based on the data of listed Chinese tourism enterprises

Previous research has shown that firms’ resources and management capabilities can contribute significantly to differences in firm resilience. However, little is known about the effect of board governance structures on tourism enterprise resilience during industry crises. This study is the first to explore the effects of board governance structure on tourism firms’ resilience in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Thus, this study constructed an econometric model, applying ordinary least squares and two-stage least squares with instrumental variables. The model was empirically tested using data from listed Chinese tourism companies for 14 months before and after the COVID-19 outbreak. The study's findings show that board structure significantly impacts tourism enterprises’ risk resilience. The role of the board governance structure is significantly heterogeneous owing to differences in the proportion of independent directors, the shareholding ratio of directors and the dual role levels of the chairman and general manager of tourism firms. This study extends the growing tourism resilience literature by adding the important variable of board governance structure. The contribution of this study lies in providing strategic suggestions for tourism firms to enhance their resilience by adjusting their board governance structure, thereby increasing their ability to weather unexpected crisis events.