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A consumer adoption model for personalized medicine: an exploratory study

Anja Hitz (Medical Compliance and Prevention, Army Hospital, Hamburg, Germany)
Lea Prevel Katsanis (Department of Marketing, Concordia University, John Molson School of Business, Montreal, Canada)

International Journal of Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Marketing

ISSN: 1750-6123

Article publication date: 28 October 2014

1581

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this research is to identify factors linked to the potential acceptance of personalized medicine (PM) by consumers. Roger’s diffusion of innovation model (1995) and the work of Duguay et al. (2003) on transgenic biopharmaceuticals contributed to the development of the proposed conceptual model.

Design/methodology/approach

The study design was an exploratory cross-sectional survey that used a Canadian national online panel of 307 respondents.

Findings

The results suggest that the most important factors leading to consumer adoption of PM are knowledge, relative advantage and compatibility with existing values. The level of homophilus traits was negatively related to the acceptance of PM.

Originality/value

Marketers will need to provide documented evidence of PM’s benefits over existing therapy based on improved efficacy and reduced side effects. Further, concerns about higher price, product distribution and drug reimbursement policies may limit its acceptance. This is the first study to examine the potential adoption and acceptance of PM by consumers.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Concordia University for providing funding in the form of a Small Research Grant for this work. The authors would also like to thank Peter Wolter, a consultant to the pharmaceutical industry, for his valuable comments on this manuscript.

Citation

Hitz, A. and Prevel Katsanis, L. (2014), "A consumer adoption model for personalized medicine: an exploratory study", International Journal of Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Marketing, Vol. 8 No. 4, pp. 371-391. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJPHM-07-2013-0039

Publisher

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Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2014, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

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