Stand Up and be Counted—A Diverse Economy Perspective of Air New Zealand

ABSTRACT

Discussions about diverse economies have often been positioned in opposition to profit-focused global economic activity, whereas local communities are often assumed to be sites of diverse economies that embrace economic and non-economic exchanges. We argue that the perceived binary between global profit-focused economic activity and diverse economic/non-economic exchanges based on local community values should be challenged. Major companies, such as airlines, can create diverse models of economic exchange and participate in the diverse economies dialogue. Using Air New Zealand as a case study, this research provides tangible examples of how diverse economies can be operationalised. Employing qualitative content analysis from 35 online documents concerning the airline, it is argued that diverse economies can be actively co-created by large organisations by activating different stakeholder interests. This paper contributes to the re-framing of diverse economies thinking, which generally focuses on local communities, towards the global business environment, and offers a perspective on how large global businesses that are significantly regulated and focused on market capitalisation, might also progress diverse economies.

KEYWORDS:

• Alternative forms of tourism
• diversification
• New Zealand
• corporate social responsibility

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Aaron Tham http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1408-392X