From April 28 to May 10, Prof. Krafft and his research assistant and doctoral student Theresa Steinebach visited Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. The purpose of this research journey was to meet their research partner Anne Coughlan from Kellogg School of Management, who is an expert in direct selling, channel management and sales force management among others. The three researchers initiated a new research project in the field of direct selling and worked on research questions addressing the prediction of direct selllers’ intent to leave as well as differences in the direct selling sales force across countries and continents. Based on the progress they achieved in these two weeks, they will be able to push forward this new project in the upcoming months. In fall this year, Anne Coughlan will then visit the MCM.

Additionally, Prof. Krafft and Anne Coughlan finalized a paper on the drivers of high performance of direct-selling distributors, which is joint work with Julian Allendorf (IfM). Prof. Krafft also used the time in Evanston to interact with Vijay Viswanathan from Northwestern’s MEDILL, School of Journalism, Media and Integrated Marketing, to work on a joint research project on loyalty programs.