POTENTIAL OF EARNINGS IN NETWORK MARKETING AND SOME FACTORS INFLUENCING COMMISSIONS RATES: EVIDENCE FROM BULGARIA

During the last two decades direct selling and its new form known as network marketing (multilevel marketing) illustrate constant growth at a global scale, despite the world economic crisis. According to WFDSA global retail sales in the industry are at amount of 166 billion USD, achieved through 90 million independent salespersons in 2012. In terms of high unemployment and financial instability network marketing deals increasingly as a tool for generating income and employment in the societies. From the 1990s this alternative business model rapidly entered in the lives of people in Central and East European Countries in order to improve their living standards. Direct selling has experienced steady growth in Bulgaria in the last 5 years as the biggest channel of non-store based retailing. The aim of this paper is to provide some evidence for the potential of network marketing in Bulgaria and to explore which factors influence the commission earnings. For this purpose correlation analysis has been used to prove