Content area
Abstract
Multilevel marketing is an emergent business model in which organizations have a network of independent salesmen who recruit other salesmen and draw commissions from the sales of their recruits. While practitioners predict that the industry is set to be the next trillion dollar business phenomenon, industry experts contend that the average agent earns income not commensurate with personal economic and social resources employed to generate sales. Yet evidence abounds that these agents are inexplicably committed to the industry.
This presents a paradox which this thesis investigates. It explores the nature, structure, ideology and perceived benefits of multilevel marketing and examines how people get involved with, and sustain their commitment to it. Using data collected through participant observation and personal interviews and analyzing them in the context of anthropological theory, this study reveals that agents are converted to ardent adherents through the socialization process embedded in the business model.
