An article about this topic was even done by the Wall Street Journal in 1995. Here are some excerpts from the article:
Of particular concern these days is the increasing number of claims that the business school endorses multilevel marketing, in which distributors earn commissions on products that they or their recruits sell. “If the registrar’s office had a dollar for every call we’ve had over the years over whether Harvard Business School teaches multilevel marketing or has studies on it, we could throw a very nice Christmas party,” reads one internal business-school memo. “This claim is harder to kill than a dandelion.
“What was once a nuisance now looks like grounds for potential defamation or libel lawsuits, says Frank J. Connors, a Harvard lawyer. Some handouts, for example, now claim — falsely — that Harvard has conducted “extensive research in the network marketing industry,” and that the business school calls multilevel marketing “a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”
Many of the current myths about Harvard and multilevel marketing stem from a 1984 article widely used to recruit distributors, multilevel experts say. The article, by multilevel consultant Beverly Nadler, states without attribution that Harvard teaches multilevel marketing.
Harvard Business School marketing Prof. Robert J. Dolan worries that people may join multilevel marketing companies because they mistakenly believe Harvard condones the practice. “You hate to see your name used in a way that you haven’t approved,” he says. “Then you think of all the people who are being led down a path to some financial distress.”
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