Networking Capitalism: Network Construction and Control Effects In Direct Selling

Abstract

Drawing on a qualitative study of direct selling in Taiwan, this article examines the process of network construction and its control effects over distributors. I found that weak ties, rather than strong ties, constitute major networks for distributors to expand their business. In order to consolidate trust within weak ties, distributors develop two major strategies: personalizing sales and familiarizing sponsorship. They are engaged in a multilevel performance of emotional labor in facing the audience of customers and fellow distributors. Social networks not only function as a facilitator of economic exchange but also become a means of labor control that permeates both public and private lives of distributors.