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Making up the difference : women, beauty, and direct selling in Ecuador
Globalization and economic restructuring have decimated formal jobs in developing countries, pushing many women into informal employment such as direct selling of cosmetics, perfume, and other personal care products as a way to make up the difference between household income and expenses. In Ecuador, with its persistent economic crisis and few opportunities for financially and personally rewarding work, women increasingly choose direct selling as a way to earn income by activating their social networks. While few women earn the cars and trips that are iconic prizes in the direct selling organization, many use direct selling as part of a set of household survival strategies. In this first in-depth study of a cosmetics direct selling organization in Latin America, Erynn Masi de Casanova explores womens identities as workers, including their juggling of paid work and domestic responsibilities, their ideas about professional appearance, and their strategies for collecting money from customers. Focusing on women who work for the countrys leading direct selling organization, she offers fascinating portraits of the everyday lives of women selling personal care products in Ecuadors largest city, Guayaquil. Addressing gender relations (including a look at mens direct and indirect involvement), the importance of image, and the social and economic context of direct selling, Casanova challenges assumptions that this kind of flexible employment resolves womens work/home conflicts and offers an important new perspective on womens work in developing countries.
eBook
Female consumer entrepreneurship in Asia: capabilities for micro-entrepreneurial success and the role of coaching and training
Purpose
The direct selling model adopted in the beauty and cosmetics industry puts female consumer entrepreneurs at the heart of the business model. A neglected phenomenon in female entrepreneurship, this study aims to focus on female sales agents’ capabilities that are linked to sales performance and examine which capabilities might be shaped and enhanced through coaching and training in an emerging economy context.
Design/methodology/approach
Survey data were generated from a sample of 249 female sales agents who agreed to participate in a coaching and training programme run by a focal firm. Data were collected in two phases to investigate the capabilities linked to sales performance pre-intervention and the impact of coaching and training on the relationships between the capabilities and sales performance post-intervention. The time-lag data were analysed using partial least squares structural equation modelling.
Findings
For female sales agents, self-efficacy and sales experience have a significant positive effect on adaptive sales performance both before and after the coaching and training intervention. In contrast, intellectual capital and self-motivation had a non-significant relationship with sales performance before the intervention. However, after the intervention, the relationship between these variables became positive and significant.
Originality/value
The study demonstrates the effects of pre- and post-coaching and training on female consumer entrepreneurs’ capabilities and the links to sales performance. These findings add critical empirical knowledge on how female consumer entrepreneurship may be developed and the role of entrepreneurship for female empowerment in the Asian context. Collectively, the findings bring to the fore the female sphere in consumer entrepreneurship research in emerging economies.
Journal Article
How Entrepreneurial Marketing Facilitates Direct Sellers’Entrepreneurial Process: A Dynamic Adjustment Perspective
This study intends to examine the entrepreneurial process of individual direct sellers from the perspective of entrepreneurial marketing, and adopts the process method where events in chronological order are scrutinized. This study collects data from triangular sources and combines the focus group interviews with in-depth interviews to examine 14 direct sellers selected from one domestic, and one foreign direct selling brand, respectively. We develop a dynamic model of entrepreneurial marketing. The results show that two relational management mechanisms are crucial to the successful transformation towards the next entrepreneurial phase. The findings not only fill the academic gap in individual-level direct-selling strategy, but also shed light on entrepreneurial marketing theory by providing insights regarding how resources and initiatives are modified, which deepens the understanding of its dynamicity. Moreover, this research extends the transaction oriented Western studies on direct selling to the ‘quanxi’(Relationship) oriented Eastern context that especially values relational network. In practices, the findings could assist direct sellers and interpersonal-oriented micro-entrepreneurs to develop personal business tactics, and serve as references for direct selling companies to plan for training program of brand affiliates (BA) and brand representatives (BR).
Journal Article
Paid to Party
On any given night in living rooms across America, women gather for a fun girls' night out to eat, drink, and purchase the latest products-from Amway to Mary Kay cosmetics. Beneath the party atmosphere lies a billion-dollar industry, Direct Home Sales (DHS), which is currently changing how women navigate work and family.
Drawing from numerous interviews with consultants and observations at company-sponsored events,Paid to Partytakes a closer look at how DHS promises to change the way we think and feel about the struggles of balancing work and family. Offering a new approach to a flexible work model, DHS companies tell women they can, in fact, have it all and not feel guilty. In DHS, work time is not measured by the hands of the clock, but by the emotional fulfillment and fun it brings.
eBook
Supplier Encroachment Under Asymmetric Information
Prior literature has shown that, for a symmetric information setting, supplier encroachment into a reseller's market can mitigate double marginalization and benefit both the supplier and the reseller. This paper extends the investigation of supplier encroachment to the environment where the reseller might be better informed than the supplier. We find that the launch of the supplier's direct channel can result in costly signaling behavior on the part of the reseller, in which he reduces his order quantity when the market size is small. Such a downward order distortion can amplify double marginalization. As a result, in addition to the \"win-win\" and \"win-lose\" outcomes for the supplier and the reseller, supplier encroachment can also lead to \"lose-lose\" and \"lose-win\" outcomes, particularly when the reseller has a significant efficiency advantage in the selling process and the prior probability of a large market is low. We further explore the implications of those findings for information management in supply chains. Complementing the conventional understanding, we show that with the ability to encroach, the supplier may prefer to sell to either a better informed or an uninformed reseller in different scenarios. On the other hand, as a result of a supplier developing encroachment capability, a reseller either may choose not to develop an advanced informational capability or may become more willing to find a means of credibly sharing his information.
This paper was accepted by Yossi Aviv, operations management.
Journal Article
The subjective side of DiDIY: the profile of makers in network marketers communities
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to focus on the profile of DiDIYers and the antecedents of digital do it yourself (DiDIY) in Network Marketing Direct Selling Organizations (NMDSO).
Design/methodology/approach
A two-step research design allowed the detection of DiDIYers strictu sensu (i.e. digital makers). After collecting data about the attitudes and the actual use of digital technology (DT) by network marketers through an online survey, an open-ended interview technique made it possible to analyze the personal characteristics of DiDIYers, the motivations that drive them and the activities that mainly foster the creation of artifacts in the DT domain. Besides, it allowed to recognize the perceived benefits and the impact of DiDIY output on networkers’ downline and firms’ performance.
Findings
The results provide a preliminary profile of the DiDIYer in network marketing communities that is suitable for further comparative studies. More specifically, this exploratory study acknowledges the most important antecedents of DiDIY in digital literacy – including the awareness of being a digital literate and/or a potential appropriateur – and in organizational culture.
Research limitations/implications
This is an exploratory study based on a limited sample of DiDIYers, nevertheless it offers a preliminary view of the subjective side of the DiDIY phenomenon in network marketing and represents as well a context-bound study.
Practical implications
Considering the ascribed benefits of DiDIY output on the traditional network marketing objectives (effectiveness, efficiency, cohesion, mutual assistance and reinforcement) network marketing communities could benefit from an increase of attention to the topic.
Originality/value
The study throws light on the process of DiDIY within direct sales and network marketing activities by defining a preliminary profile of digital makers and thus, underlining a phenomenon neglected so far.
Journal Article
A ROMANIAN PERSPECTIVE ON CUSTOMER LOYALTY FOR DIRECT SELLING COMPANIES
The purpose of the research is to investigate Romanian direct sellers’ perceptions on customers’ loyalty. The research objectives are: (1) to identify the direct sellers’ perceptions on the concept of loyalty; (2) to identify the main loyalty techniques that direct sellers use in their work with the clients; (3) to frame the portrait of a loyal customer.
As a research method, we used qualitative research based on depth interviews. It is an exploratory and instrumental research, the results being used for building a questionnaire for a future survey. The investigated population is represented by direct selling women, with ages beteeen 19 and 30 years. For direct sellers, loyalty is an attitude and also a behavior, it means buying from the same company, from the same seller and preferring the products of the company. The main loyalty techniques that direct sellers use in their work with the clients are: promotional actions, personalization the relation with the client and offering stimulants. The loyal customer is the one who buys companies’ products every month or at least quarterly, spends a monthly amount of 100 Ron on these products, works with the same seller, pays on time for the order, doesn’t look only after promotions, loves the products, recommends the company to others, doesn’t return the order, wants to buy more products from the company and trusts its products.
Journal Article
The Impact of Ethics Code Familiarity on Manager Behavior
Codes of ethics exist in many, if not the majority, of all large U.S. companies today. But how the impact of these written codes affect managerial attitudes and behavior is still not clearly documented or explained. This study takes a step in that direction by proposing that attention should shift from the codes themselves as the sources of ethical behavior to the persons whose behavior is the focus of these codes. In particular, this study investigates the role of code familiarity as a factor impacting the influence of an ethics code on manager behavior. Data collected from 286 executives from companies in the direct selling industry are used to test hypotheses (1) that the perceived usefulness of ethics codes is positively related to the degree of familiarity with the code, and (2) that ethical climate as assessed by managers is positively related to the code's perceived usefulness. Both hypotheses are supported, and their implications and further research directions are discussed.
Journal Article