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The purpose of this paper is to find out the relationship between the qualities of generic drugs perceived by the physicians and brand equity of the branded generics and to examine the physicians' perceptions of prescribing generic drugs for selective medical conditions in India.

The study was carried out across six major cities in Eastern India with 392 physicians. Here components of perceived quality, i.e. intrinsic cues and extrinsic cues are hypothesized to influence perceived quality of branded generics which in turn influence brand equity. It is also hypothesized that respondents' quality experience is assimilated towards their quality expectations, independent of small variations in objective quality of the drug.

Results showed that perceived quality of branded generics significantly, but indirectly, affected brand equity through the mediating variables, intrinsic cues and extrinsic cues. The results also showed that physicians' quality experience leads to quality expectations, independent of small variations in drug quality on five common yet serious diseases in India.

Current research finds that for prescription‐based branded generic drugs, perceived quality mainly depends on intrinsic cues; therefore, managers should be interested in intrinsic cues that increase brand equity and necessary marketing actions should be implemented accordingly.

No other scholarly article has been developed, so far, analyzing the effect of perceived quality on brand equity in the Indian branded generic drug segment. Besides providing evidence from the Indian pharmaceutical context about the impact of quality cues, the paper also presents evidence on physicians' quality observation of branded generics on five common yet serious diseases in India.

This study aims at exploring the role of perceived disease seriousness in consumers’ preference for generic versus branded drugs, by shedding light on new factors impacting consumer purchase behaviour for pharmaceutical products.

An exploratory study based on a quantitative analysis has been conducted with a sample of 100 participants who have been presented with two different scenarios: one related to more serious disease (as in cardiological disease) and one related to less serious disease (as in the seasonal flu). This paper considered Italy as a research setting where the recent mandatory prescription of the active ingredient by doctors leaves the final purchase decision in consumers’ hands

Results show that, although consumers are free to choose whether to buy a branded or a generic prescribed active ingredient, their choice is mainly driven by the role of the brand. Consumers’ intention to buy generic drugs is higher in the case of diseases perceived as less serious, while the intention to buy branded drugs is higher in the case of disease perceived as more serious.

This study contributes to marketing research and practice by proposing that consumers’ perceived seriousness of their disease should be considered as a further factor in identifying new marketing strategies in those contexts in which the choice between branded or generic drugs is free.

This research aims to provide an empirical comparison of the results of three brands' marketing defence strategies used in advance of generic brands entering the market. By reviewing the effectiveness of these strategies, this research looks to extend the research on marketing defence strategies into the importance of anticipating competitor launches.

A data set containing 243 weeks of scanned sales for 21 generic brands was used in a regression model aimed at measuring the effectiveness of each brand's defence strategies in deterring entry and limiting the market share of these generic brands.

The analysis shows that several marketing mix components were effective in limiting the impact of generic brands. What was critical to each component's success was ensuring that they were implemented before the launch of the generic brands.

This research has the limitation of being confined to a category of pharmaceutical allergy brands, which limits generalisation of the findings.

The managerial relevance of this research has two parts. First, it will encourage managers to move from implementing strategies in reaction to a competitor launch to implementing strategies in advance of their entry. Second, it provides insights into the effectiveness of several strategic options for brands facing the entry of generic brands.

This study brings together literature regarding entry deterrence and market share loss prevention to help highlight the importance of proactive marketing defence strategies in reducing both the number of entrants and the amount of market share lost. It uses a data set to provide an empirical review of a range of marketing mix components used by pharmaceutical brands against low‐price generic brands.

This research studies the effect of deregulation of price cap in pharmaceutical market. Price regulation (either through price cap or reference price) is common practice in the pharmaceutical market but recently there are increasing voices calling for deregulation claiming that deregulation could help in lowering drug price and increase revenue of pharmaceutical firms. Upon those callings, Chinese government removed the price cap regulation in June 2015. The author uses this natural policy experiment to study this effect.

In this study, the author applied the interrupted time series analysis (ITSA) on the revenue data of nine categories of both generic and branded drugs in China from March 2011 to August 2016 (the time frame includes both before and after of the initialization of the deregulation) and analyzed the effect of deregulation.

The results showed that, whether the revenue of drugs will increase or decrease after the deregulation of price cap depends on the level of competition and the change of patterns of the branded and generic drugs are different. When HHI (Herfindahl–Hirschman index) is sufficiently low (competition is high), revenue does not change as a result of deregulation, when HHI is moderately low (moderate competition), revenue from generic drugs will decrease significantly and revenue from branded drugs will increase significantly, and when HHI is high (low competition), revenue from generic drugs will increase significantly and revenue from branded drugs will decrease significantly.

This is a unique study with a unique data set. Most previous studies focus on regulation of drug price and analyze how this may affect drug revenue; however, this is a natural policy experiment of de-regulation. Moreover, previously most studies focus on reference pricing regulation and this is price-cap, a different mechanism that is rarely studied. The originality/value is high of this article.

Marketers devote great efforts to maintaining brand value. However, brand value can come under attack in the absence of sufficient product performance and image differentiation in a process called unbranding. This paper aims to provide insights and guidelines that will give marketing managers tools to deal with variables that impact consumer decisions on whether to buy a national brand or a store brand product.

A consumer research study was based on a random, mall intercept with 188 respondents consisting of seven questions scored on a ten‐point scale. The results are presented on a set of graphs accompanied with some analysis of means (ANOM) applications.

Results indicated that a significant portion of consumers (from over 40 percent to a high of 85 percent) feel that the quality differences between branded and generic products have diminished and the price premiums charged by branded products are often no longer justifiable.

The findings of this study imply that in branded product premium image must be maintained and enhanced, otherwise it will be lost. In addition, the trend of brand value loss referred to as unbranding will vary significantly by and within a product category.

Branded products must maintain their superior consumer perception and product performance. Store or generic brand marketers should exploit the favorable price‐value relationship gained because of the loss of brand value through a process of store branding.

The new concept of unbranding is introduced together with research‐based recommendations for brand value protection strategies.

The growing consumer demand for, and acceptance of, so‐called no‐name brands of a variety of food, as well as nonfood, products—from cooking oil to cotton swabs, tomato juice to toilet tissue, brownie mix to beauty aids, and liquor to laundry detergent—is a significant development in retailing. No‐name brands have captured about 2 percent of the total grocery sales in the United States in just three years . According to a recent report prepared by A.C. Nielsen Company, no‐name brand shares in the top fifty product categories in which they are strongest range from 4 to 10 percent of the category sales volumes; this is in spite of the fact that no‐name brands have not yet achieved the broad levels of retail distribution enjoyed by branded products . In fact, the share of no‐name brands is as high as 16 percent in certain product categories based on the sales volumes of only those retail outlets that carry them. Contrary to industry expectations, the growth of no‐name brands appears to be a persistent market phenomenon rather than a passing fad. Indeed, retail chains such as Ralph's on the west coast and Jewel in the midwest now have “generic” aisles in their stores.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of country of origin image on brand equity of branded generic drugs.

Brand equity of branded generics is examined through an analytical review. Country of origin image is hypothesised to influence components of brand equity, i.e. brand strength and brand awareness, which in turn influence brand equity. An empirical investigation was carried out among professionally similar respondents, i.e. doctors of different categories in Kolkata megapolis, India.

Results showed that country of origin image had a positive and significant effect on components of brand equity, i.e. brand strength and brand awareness, derived from factor analysis conducted on brand equity components. The result also showed that country of origin image of branded generics significantly, but indirectly, affected brand equity through the mediating variables, brand strength and brand awareness.

Different variables have influence on brand equity. This study dealt with only one type of variable, i.e. country of origin image, that may limit the total process of brand equity enhancement.

Marketing actions should be implemented to enhance brand strength and awareness levels. Country of origin image should be assessed as a multidimensional concept for enhancing brand equity. Marketers should be aware of the fact that physicians are influenced by the brand's original country image.

This research work has extended prior country of origin research by conceptualising the country of origin image as a brand equity enhancing tool in a new area called branded generic drugs.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the physicians’ attitude toward branded generic drugs in prescribing those drugs in some selective medical conditions and to identify the factors that influence physicians’ behavior toward prescribing branded generic drugs in the said selective medical conditions.

The study was carried out across six major cities in eastern India with 301 physicians. The current study introduced some significant elements into the modified technology acceptance model (TAM) with title the extended tam for product usage (TETPU) to analyze the prescribing factors that influence physicians in five common yet serious medical conditions in India. Out of nine factors considered here, seven were selected from the previous literature studies of different product segments and two were proposed by the authors. Demographic factor was proposed as the confounding variable.

The results indicated that apart from the factors “perceived no need” and “physicians’ perception and need achievement” rest of the factors showed satisfactory to excellent results.

The current study findings may enable the pharmaceutical managers to revise or modify their current marketing communication and other brand-building strategies so as to achieve a superior performance that offers them a competitive advantage.

The paper fulfils a need for advancing the knowledge on the physician’s prescription influencing factors by introducing the newer aspects of the concept and offers a theoretical framework for the academia and practical framework for the managers who desire to implement the strategies to achieve competitive advantage.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the percentage of generic inventory pharmacists have in stock, to comprehend why pharmacists in Jordan recommend and dispense generic products.

In total, 104 pharmacists were surveyed using a structured questionnaire. The questionnaire contained statements about perception of generic products, inclination to recommend generic products, importance of promotions, factors influencing a recommendation, stock of generics, and among others. Correlational and discriminant analyses were used to establish associations between variables to distinguish characteristics between groups.

More than half of the Jordanian pharmacists sampled carry between 20 and 39 per cent stock of generic drugs and 46 per cent carry more than 40 per cent stock. One‐third (33 per cent) substitutes branded products by generic ones and slightly more (36 per cent) recommend more generic than branded products as opposed to those who recommend more branded products (24 per cent). Male pharmacists (49 per cent) tend to recommend more generic products than do females (24.6 per cent) and those who recommend more branded products are more influenced by sales visits rather than manufacturer's name or bonuses.

The paper provides valuable information about the pharmaceutical industry in Jordan and the empirical study adds insights from pharmacists about generic medicine.

Taking an emerging country perspective, this paper aims to investigate consumers’ preferences for over-the-counter (OTC) drugs, regarding three attributes: country-of-origin (COO), brand status (branded versus generic) and price. The second purpose is to test the effect of COO and brand status on consumers’ perceptions of quality, trust and purchasing intentions.

After a preliminary qualitative study, consumers answered a follow-up questionnaire to evaluate eight product combinations (COO/brand status/price) for three categories of OTC drugs. Conjoint analysis allowed assessing the importance of COO compared to brand status and price, while ANOVA was used to test the effect of COO and branding status on consumers’ responses.

Findings show that, in an emerging countries context, COO is less important than brand status in consumers’ preferences. COO and brand status have a greater effect on consumers’ perceptions of drug quality and trust than on purchasing intentions.

The limited number of factors (brand status/COO/price) could have amplified their relative importance.

Pharmaceutical companies from industrialized countries, exporting generic drugs to emerging markets, can benefit from the favorably perceived COO of their drugs and thus help the acceptance of generic drugs in these markets.

The study has two major contributions. It aims to contribute to a better understanding of consumer behavior in the pharmaceutical field. It also transposes the framework on COO to the context of an emerging country: Tunisia.