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

Although 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.