The Empire of Direct Sales and the Making of Thai Entrepreneurs

Abstract

This article offers an ethnographic investigation of contemporary capitalist discourses about entrepreneurship by exploring the expanse of the direct sales industry into Thailand. Direct selling is a century-old merchandising approach that developed in the United States as an ‘alternative’ form of capitalism. Since the 1980s, the direct sales approach of Amway, Avon, and other firms has become increasingly globalized and has achieved some success in Thailand. This article demonstrates the implication of local meanings and social hierarchies for the translation of entrepreneurial rhetoric into Thai contexts through the case studies of two direct sales distributors in Bangkok. This ethnographic exploration of the production and reception of discourses about entrepreneurial self-help offers a cardinal illustration of the cultural processes of post-Fordist capitalism.