Trust, Ethics, and Storytelling: Legitimate Leadership in Companies, Tequila Makers of the Agave Route, Jalisco

This article explores the foundations of legitimate leadership in small tequila businesses located along the Agave Route in Jalisco, Mexico, through an interpretive qualitative approach. Drawing on ten semi-structured interviews with business owners, the study investigates how ethical leadership, conscious cooperation, organizational communication, and storytelling converge to shape perceptions of leadership legitimacy. Grounded in Chester Barnard's classic theory of accepted authority and enriched by contemporary perspectives on ethical leadership and symbolic narrative, the analysis reveals that legitimacy does not stem from formal hierarchy but from ethical consistency, community ties, and authenticity in daily relationships. The findings highlight that storytelling—although often informal and underutilized in digital formats—emerges as a key practice for communicating purpose, values, and cultural identity. The study proposes a contextual interpretive model in which leadership legitimacy arises from the intersection of practiced ethics, shared narratives, and local recognition. These insights contribute to understanding how microenterprise leaders in culturally significant rural regions consolidate trust and moral authority, offering implications for sustainable territorial development and leadership training initiatives.