Fostering organisational high performance through leadership and organisational learning: evidence from tourism firms in Vietnam

The restrictions of the COVID-19 pandemic have threatened the survival of tourism organisations in developing countries. Previous research has explored the role of leaders and learning in supporting organisations' enhanced performance and response to the crisis. This paper endeavoured to investigate how complexity leadership and organisational learning contribute to the achievement of high performance in tourism firms in Vietnam, using a quantitative approach with 474 survey responses collected from tourism firms in Vietnam and Smart-PLS to perform partial least squares structural equation modelling statistical techniques. The findings revealed that complexity leadership and factors of organisational learning both directly and indirectly affect organisational high performance. This study contributes to research on leadership, organisational learning and high performance by offering a comprehensive model that combines these fields. As conceptual and empirical studies are lacking in these areas, this paper offers important theoretical and managerial implications for industry leaders, researchers and policymakers alike.