Charismatic Capitalism: Direct Selling Organizations in America

by Nicole Woolsey Biggart

Book Overview

Tupperware Home Parties, Shaklee Corporation, Amway, Mary Kay Cosmetics--theirs is an approach to business that violates many of the basic tenets of modern American commerce. Yet these direct selling organizations, fashioned by charismatic leaders and built upon devoted armies of door-to-door representatives, have grown to constitute an $8.5 billion a year industry and provide a livelihood for more than 5 million workers, the vast majority of them...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0226047865
• ISBN13: 9780226047867
• Release Date: March 1990
• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Length: 231 Pages
• Weight: 0.66 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

This is the only scholarly study of this industry that I've

Just about all of the books that I've read about direct selling, multi-level marketing, etc. are either how to books, books expounding the glories of direct selling, books denouncing the evils of direct selling, or are biographies of the founders of a company. This is a scholarly and objective treatment of the industry. It explains quite well the positive and negative aspects of the industry and a number of major firms that have shaped it. I recommend it to anyone seriously interested in understanding the direct selling industry.

Excellent, but needs to be updated- the industry has moved o

The content lacks sample product marketing plan. A chapter describing how the major Direct Selling Organizations manage their business, ie. recruitment, buiseness plan presentation, pick up and distribution, the options and a sample conference presentation would have made the book more complete and practical.