Firms using a direct selling (DS) distribution channel delegate selling and sales management responsibilities to an independent-contractor distributor force. The DS firm’s inability to directly control distributors’ efforts, and the fact that most active distributors choose to work part-time rather than full-time at their DS business, makes an examination of the drivers of DS performance outcomes important for academic study and managerial insight.

In light of scarce resources, firms strategically weigh off between investments in value creation and value appropriation. They do so by placing more emphasis on one of the two strategic orientations which defines their strategic emphasis. So far, literature has relied on accounting data – specifically on reported investments in R&D and advertising – to operationalize reported strategic emphasis and studied its association with a firm’s financial performance. Previous studies suggest that firms benefit from emphasizing value appropriation.

The article “Social Interactions in the Metaverse: Framework, Initial Evidence, and Roadmap,” by the MCM’s eXperimental Reality Lab (XRLab@MCM) current members Prof. Thorsten Hennig-Thurau, Nilusha Aliman, and Alina Herting, together with former XRLab members Gerrit Cziehso, Marc Linder, and Prof. Raoul Kübler (now at ESSEC) has been honored with the prestigious Jagdish N. Sheth Best JAMS Article Award 2023 by the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science (JAMS) Editorial Board! The Best Article Award recognizes the authors of the outstanding article published in JAMS in a given year.