Charismatic capitalism : direct selling organizations in America / Nicole Woolsey Biggart.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Biggart, Nicole Woolsey.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Direct selling--United States.

Direct selling.

Sales personnel--United States.

Sales personnel.

Commercial agents--United States.

Commercial agents.

United States.

Physical Description:

xii, 223 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 1989.

Summary:

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 women. The first full-scale study of this industry, Charismatic Capitalism, revises the standard contention that the rationalization of social institutions is an inevitable consequence of advanced capitalism. Nicole Woolsey Biggart argues instead that less rational organizations built on social networks may actually be more economically viable.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0226047857 :

0226047865

OCLC:

18135775