The co-creation of diverse values and paradigms in small values-based tourism firms

Abstract

ABSTRACTAlthough small firms characterise the tourism sector, there is currently insufficient critical understanding of firms that do not define themselves in commercial terms but through the non-profit values they pursue and the ethical vision they are committed to. This paper refers to such firms with the expression ‘values-based’ and examines their co-creation of diverse values and paradigms. Through a social constructionist perspective, the research designs a qualitative narrative approach based on a number of lightly guided interviews with the owner-managers of small Italian tour operators: all members of the Italian Association of Responsible Tourism, committed to an ethical vision of tourism, and operating in developing countries. The study implements a narrative analysis that reveals common patterns in the way participants make sense of their driving values and co-create – together with their collaborators, partners and customers – an ethical vision of tourism and driving-values in respect to global challenges. The paper proposes a critical stance on how small values-based tourism firms understand and narrate the process of co-creating diverse values and paradigms. This study challenges several assumptions about how non-commercially oriented firms contribute to co-creating alternative values and paradigms in tourism with regards to development, growth, citizenship and entrepreneurship.