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

reciprocal way. These affective activities based on mutually beneficial exchange enable
the relationship between direct sellers and customers to move from a state of relational
transaction towards mutual dependence based on bilateral commitment and trust.
Relational bonds and shared norms then encourage customers to join sales teams as direct

sellers continue to leverage their experience and knowledge and expand their teams.
Unlike the first two stages, the stable symbiosis stage involves direct sellers sharing
business opportunities and partnering with their customers to drive their teams’ growth.

During this stage, direct sellers strengthen their partnerships with some customers
who then become members of the sales team. To create stable symbiotic relationships,
customers and direct sellers help each other, collaborate, share experiences and resources,
and cocreate value. They also share knowledge, which enables direct sellers to respond
to potential business opportunities, energize their team members, reinforce shared values,

and develop their businesses. In this stage, direct sellers become innovation oriented.

4. Research Limitations/Implications

The findings can help direct sellers and interpersonal-oriented microentrepreneurs
develop business strategies and serve as references for companies implementing training
programs for direct sellers. Entrepreneurs should understand the entrepreneurial stages to
apply the appropriate EM initiative and thereby optimize resource allocation and returns.

In addition, direct sellers can gain partners through customer optimization and foster stable
symbiotic relationships by inspiring partnership. Without understanding relational states
and acting accordingly, direct sellers may be unable to proceed to subsequent later stages
of entrepreneurship.

This study has several limitations that future studies can address. First, because
various EM constructs are involved in each stage, objective measures of changes in these
constructs should be developed and evaluated (Toghraee, Rezvani, Mobaraki, and Farsi,
2017; Schweiger, Stettler, Baldauf, and Zamudio, 2019). We examine direct sellers’

entrepreneurial experience by using multiple data sources, and our analysis is sensitive to
the context underlying the phenomenon; however, the findings may not holistically reflect
direct sellers’ sales performance. Studies should thus include outcome measures (e.g., sale
performance data) to elucidate the causal relationships among EM constructs and improve

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