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NTU Management Review Vol. 33 No. 2 Aug. 2023

How Entrepreneurial Marketing Facilitates Direct Sellers’
Entrepreneurial Process: A Dynamic Adjustment Perspective

Wen-Chiung Chou, Department of Business Administration, Chung Yuan Christian University
Hsiu-Ying Huang, Department of International Business, Feng Chia University
Yi-Fang Chiang, Department of Cooperative Economics and Social Entrepreneurship, Feng Chia
University

1. Purpose/Objective

The development of the direct selling industry in Taiwan and abroad has been
accelerating at a remarkable rate in recent years. However, few, if any, academic theories

on the process development of direct sellers have been formulated, and most research on
direct selling has focused on the exploration of business and individual operating models,
as well as sales growth. To explore the dynamic nature of the entrepreneurial process
of direct sellers, this study uses Entrepreneurial Marketing (EM) as a theoretical lens

and adopts a qualitative process method, in which events are analyzed chronologically.
Acting as entrepreneurs as well as marketers in the entrepreneurial process, direct sellers
consistently explore new opportunities, leverage resources, account for risk (Jones and
Rowley, 2011; McMullen and Dimov, 2013), recruit and expand sales teams, and retain

customers in their networks (e.g., Keong and Dastane, 2019). Our study aims to identify
how EM construct levels evolve across the three entrepreneurial stages by exploring how
direct sellers use EM to advance their businesses and customer relationships.

2. Design/Methodology/Approach

To account for the dynamic and complex nature of entrepreneurial process, this
study uses a qualitative process tracing. This study also employs triangulation by using

multiple data sources, verbatim transcription, and investigator analysis to ensure the
validity of the findings. We analyze the data collected from researchers’ field notes, focus
group interviews, one-on-one interviews, archival documents, public news broadcasts,
and official websites of the targeting direct selling companies. One of the researchers

serves as the moderator in the focus group interviews and collects data through a funnel

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