This paper uses a unique dataset of over 13,000 individual direct-selling distributors from dozens of firms, at a wide variety of stages in their direct selling experiences, to investigate the motivations to join, stay, and leave a direct selling distributorship. We build on the literatures in...

The literature on chief executive officers (CEOs) establishes that economic and sociological rationales are both essential to understand the level and structure of CEOs' compensation. Our thesis is that internal "transaction costs" or frictions override strictly economic criteria to determine...

Direct selling (DS) is simultaneously a business model, a channel of distribution, and an activity engaged in by its distributors. In this paper, we provide a framework for analyzing and discuss academic research on the DS distribution model.We focus in particular on research that develops...

Direct selling (DS) is a long-standing and legal retail distribution channel whose distributors act as retail salespeople, sales managers, and personal consumers of the firm’s products. The FTC, state Attorneys General, and other plaintiffs prosecute firms they argue operate illegal pyramid...

Consumer participation in the entrepreneurial “gig economy” is now a common occurrence. The gig economy is characterized by flexible jobs, here called voluntary business arrangements (VBAs), filled by independent contractors and freelancers who work part-time or in temporary positions. The...

We investigate how optimal sales training strategies depend on firm, industry, and channel structure factors, such as sales training productivity, market growth rates, the organizational structure of the intermediary's salesforce, the learning and retraining characteristics of salespeople, and...