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...