Direct selling isn't just an industry or a business model-it's people. Direct selling is successful today because of the people who have been able to build successful businesses from the ground up or by representing a company's product. Entrepreneurs who use a direct selling approach utilize independent salespeople to market and sell their products or services directly to the consumer. These direct selling distributors are offered a low-risk, low-cost path to micro-entrepreneurship. Framed within the context of entrepreneurship and an overview of the long-term sustainability of the direct selling business model, this book dives into three main issues associated with direct selling: compensation, ethics and compliance, and global reach. Written for practitioners, academics, members of the press, policy makers, and students, this text offers research and knowledge about the economic and social benefits of direct selling and provides detail and clarity on key issues related to direct selling as a sustainable business model. Chapter 2 offers an historical perspective on direct selling. There was a form of direct selling as early as 6,000 years ago when peddlers would travel the Silk Road to sell goods. Five main events brought about how direct selling looks today: the first company who had people go door-to-door to sell products, welcoming women as distributors, the formation of the Direct Selling Association (DSA), a new approach to compensation, and the evolution of the sales method. All five events are discussed. The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on direct selling are also explored. Direct selling has long been both a go-to-market strategy and a form a gig work; many businesses and individuals have achieved success in both forms. Direct selling companies have evolved over time and will continue to do so to take advantage of future opportunities.

Direct selling isn't just an industry or a business model-it's people. Direct selling is successful today because of the people who have been able to build successful businesses from the ground up or by representing a company's product. Entrepreneurs who use a direct selling approach utilize independent salespeople to market and sell their products or services directly to the consumer. These direct selling distributors are offered a low-risk, low-cost path to micro-entrepreneurship. Framed within the context of entrepreneurship and an overview of the long-term sustainability of the direct selling business model, this book dives into three main issues associated with direct selling: compensation, ethics and compliance, and global reach. Written for practitioners, academics, members of the press, policy makers, and students, this text offers research and knowledge about the economic and social benefits of direct selling and provides detail and clarity on key issues related to direct selling as a sustainable business model. Chapter 5 explores the global reach of direct selling. Entering new geographic markets offers faster revenue growth for direct selling companies as new people experience the products or services. International expansion comes with various benefits, such as competitive advantage and foreign investment opportunities for the company as well as business opportunities for individuals. But it also comes with its challenges: understanding the customer journey, recruiting and training distributors, and maintaining effective and efficient supply chains are more complex when doing business in multiple countries rather than one. Local regulatory restrictions and political unease can also be obstacles. The process of deciding where and how to expand is outlined, including working with cultural differences and the geographic distance. Demography and technology are two trends that have an impact on business transactions within an emerging economy.

Direct selling isn't just an industry or a business model-it's people. Direct selling is successful today because of the people who have been able to build successful businesses from the ground up or by representing a company's product. Entrepreneurs who use a direct selling approach utilize independent salespeople to market and sell their products or services directly to the consumer. These direct selling distributors are offered a low-risk, low-cost path to micro-entrepreneurship. Framed within the context of entrepreneurship and an overview of the long-term sustainability of the direct selling business model, this book dives into three main issues associated with direct selling: compensation, ethics and compliance, and global reach. Written for practitioners, academics, members of the press, policy makers, and students, this text offers research and knowledge about the economic and social benefits of direct selling and provides detail and clarity on key issues related to direct selling as a sustainable business model. Chapter 7 discusses opportunities and challenges in the direct selling marketplace. The direct selling channel has considerable flexibility to sustain income for entrepreneurs. To look at maintaining this flexibility, the PESTEL analysis of macroenvironmental influences and a stakeholder impact analysis are utilized. The PESTEL analysis explores six external forces-political, economic, social, technological, ecological, and legal-that create opportunities and challenges for a direct selling organization. A stakeholder impact analysis identifies stakeholders, the opportunities and threats they represent, the responsibilities the company has to them, and how the company should address their concerns. A discussion among four executives in the direct selling marketplace on issues they view as opportunities and challenges is also provided; they focus on social, technological, and legal issues.

Technology is an engine for growth with great potential to transform women's self-efficacy and social capital. This article focuses on women in sales and sheds light on the intersection of technology, self-efficacy, and social capital in developing countries. The use of technology allows women to transform their social and economic lives by changing and reshaping processes that enable opportunities for growth and development-ultimately offering a bridge to close the many gaps in human socioeconomic development in developing countries. To this end, we offer several recommendations for saleswomen and organizations to expand their application of technological capabilities for product orders, market messaging, and training.

The labor market has long included individuals seeking nonemployee, alternative work arrangements. Now, alternative work arrangements such as freelancing, independent contracting, and temporary contracts have entered the lexicon through the following terminology: the gig economy, the sharing economy, the YouEconomy, agile workforce, and contingent workers. There are currently an estimated 18.6 million independent contractors engaged in direct selling. This article reports the first attempt to empirically investigate and document both the economic and social impacts of direct selling in the U.S. Our findings suggest that direct selling has a consequential impact on the U.S. economy and that the direct selling experience fosters a variety of skills that benefit professional activities as well as the personal lives of millions of independent workers.

In an era of increasing technological transformation, the lines among industries, competitors, and companies are blurring as firms and platforms combine to create unique methods for engagement. Survival and growth in a rapidly changing marketplace requires incumbent companies to divest themselves of legacy thinking and to embrace internal innovation that adds value for both channel members and customers. This entails understanding the mechanisms of process digitalization, communications digitalization, and buyer digitalization. It requires incumbent firms to build and innovate on strengths currently possessed in-house and to identify and cover resource gaps. Incumbents also must work to overcome organizational inertia and effectively implement an agile approach for digitalization across the company, channels, and customer triumvirate. In sum, incumbents must: (1) consider and embrace gains from the digitalization of process, communications, and buyer; (2) respect the core business while recognizing that elements of the existing business model must adapt to changing channels and customer expectations; and (3) recognize that digitalization comes in many forms with multiple applications.

Intervention, such as that performed via surgical procedures, is necessary when a board of directors is not functioning as it should. Unlike medical procedures, members of a board of directors have to perform surgery on themselves for change to occur. Board surgery might require resizing the board, invoking term limits, establishing conflict of interest policies, and increased emphasis on board member competencies. This article describes the symptoms leading to the need for surgery and suggests that it is better to perform elective surgery rather than letting problems reach the point of requiring emergency surgery.

While scholars have explored the construct and ramifications of intellectual property, most research efforts have focused on patents as a means of protecting a firm's intellectual capital. Yet Hemphill (2004) suggested that trade secrets can affect the difference between economic success and failure of the firm. When trade secrets are discussed, there is a tendency to focus on the more famous secrets that have received considerable hype in the popular press (e.g., Coca-Cola, KFC, McDonald's). To address this shortage of trade secrets storytelling, the research reported here engaged in a historiographic approach to capturing and compiling an in-depth look at various company trade secrets and elaborating on the strategic intent behind many of the secrecy efforts. Product and process secrets were seen to be used to develop positive brand perceptions, establish consistent brand purchasing, aid in distinguishing products and services from competitive offerings, and build market share. We suggest that managers should regularly assess which assets are suitable for patent, product design, trademark, copyright, or trade secret status and work diligently to protect the firm's intangible assets.

Internal consumption in the direct selling industry has been at the heart of many debates over the past couple of decades. In this article, we contend that internal consumption is a widespread practice at all levels of the distribution channel and not something limited to the direct selling or the multilevel marketing (MLM) retail arena. While government regulators in some countries attempt to use this practice in MLM as prima facie evidence of illegal pyramiding, the results presented here provide evidence of the widespread use of internal consumption in all aspects of retailing. Thus, to attribute internal consumption as a negative aspect solely within the direct selling marketplace shows a misplaced understanding with regard to personal use, discounts, and company recruiting efforts. At the same time, however, our research shows that discounted purchasing of product for personal use likely brings little value to the company since it does not appear to result in increased job satisfaction or organizational loyalty from either the affected employees or the customer base.

Corporations now face the oftentimes daunting task of integrating the interests of multiple stakeholders. The general intent behind this multiple stakeholder focus has been to ensure that corporations operate for the benefit of society as a whole, with corporate governance in the oversight role for all activities. Our research suggests doing business in an emerging economy is confounded by the fact that rules, regulations, and marketplace expectations of the home market do not apply. Due to their evolving nature, the environments in emerging economies are uncertain and complex. Governance is not just an oversight issue related to making the most appropriate decisions. Instead, responsible governance in emerging markets entails governing bodies understanding the characteristics of the unsettled environment in which the company is, or will be, operating. Four major characteristics (demographic trends, technological development, natural resources, and political/legal unease) of emerging economies have led to significant challenges and stormy passage with respect to governance. The continual evolution and understanding of these factors must, of necessity, shape a company's governance process in the developing marketplace.

Recent economic, social-political, and natural disasters have all served to highlight the fragility of the global marketplace. As such, it is no longer questioned as to whether or not companies should be good corporate citizens; that is a given. Rather, concern in the 21st century centers on how businesses can become better global corporate citizens. Unfortunately, without clear guidance regarding how this may be accomplished, global corporate citizenship will remain a fringe activity and not become a critical component of an organization's core business strategy. The integrated framework presented herein identifies key elements and tips for implementing a business-based approach to global corporate citizenship.

Consumers are adopting increasingly active roles in co-creating marketing content with companies and their respective brands. In turn, companies and organizations are looking to online social marketing programs and campaigns in an effort to reach consumers where they 'live' online. However, the challenge facing many companies is that although they recognize the need to be active in social media, they do not truly understand how to do it effectively, what performance indicators they should be measuring, and how they should measure them. Further, as companies develop social media strategies, platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter are too often treated as stand-alone elements rather than part of an integrated system. This article offers a systematic way of understanding and conceptualizing online social media, as an ecosystem of related elements involving both digital and traditional media. We highlight a best-practice case study of an organization's successful efforts to leverage social media in reaching an important audience of young consumers. Then, we conclude with several insights and lessons related to the strategic integration of social media into a firm's marketing communications strategy.

Today's future business leaders are confronted early in their academic careers with history-making events which have a profound impact on the global economic system. These students of business are being exposed to behaviors as they unfold and, as such, are possibly living in an age of the "cheating culture" whereby everybody cheats because everyone else does it. Business students from around the world completed a cheating culture scale as part of a much larger investigation examining college students' attitudes toward capitalism and business ethics. Findings suggest that the cheating culture is not just a capitalistic phenomenon and that attitudinal differences are driven by gender, country corruption, and socioeconomic environment. Future business leaders worldwide, who are being shaped by news reports of scandal, are also being taught the fundamentals of operating in the business world. Unfortunately, they may be learning to inextricably combine the cheating culture with best business practices.

The habitual mode of poor strategy implementation shaping the next round of strategy formulation weakens the subsequent planning cycle. Unfortunately, decades of company interactions consisting of research, teaching, and consulting suggest that strategy implementation has become a catchall of phrases and recommendations, with little clarity as to what comprises this necessary cornerstone of a capable organization. Strategists tend to use powerful terminology when referring to implementation efforts. Descriptors such as killers, confrontation, and engagement are linked with actions like conquering, blocking, tackling, and honing when discussing strategy implementation. Our contention is that implementation is a critical cornerstone or ally in the building of a capable organization, and the use of the appropriate levers of implementation is the pivotal hinge in the development of the organization. Ultimately, strategy implementation helps create the future, not inhibit it.

Since its conception, the marketing mix has been the marketer's toolkit for success. A firm's marketing plan is basically comprised of the "four Ps" of the marketing mix toolkit, with practitioners and academicians segregating a marketer's tasks into product, place, price, and promotion. A decade of company-based research suggests, however, that it is time to rebuild the marketing machine by focusing on the key strategic issues that companies, and marketers, face in today's rapidly evolving, digitized marketplace. If marketing is to become a way of doing business rather than merely one of several organizational functions, marketers must recognize that the marketing mix toolkit is truly an implement for success. Only after we, as marketers, recognize and conceptualize marketing as a bigger machine than just the four Ps will we be able to bring a market orientation to the forefront of strategic thought.

With worldwide sales topping $85 billion, the scope and scale of direct selling warrants greater understanding of its chief asset: the sales representative. Self-employed individuals, these reps are instrumental to their firms' success and growth. Interviews with direct selling executives have helped identify universally applicable sales force success variables: selecting the right individuals, maintaining their motivation, developing the appropriate skills, and providing high perceived value and supply. With an independent sales force framework, it is imperative for direct selling firms to implement programs that aid in finding and keeping strong individual sellers.