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Within the framework of the theory of planned behavior (TPB), this study aims to investigate which factors affect consumers’ purchase intention with regard to over-the-counters (OTCs), focusing on personal factors, including health consciousness and risk aversion, as well as rational factors, consisting of the level of knowledge, price consciousness and involvement in the purchase intentions.

Due to the necessity of finding the most crucial industry-specific indicators, it was decided to carry out two-stage research based on qualitative preliminary research and the main study. The findings obtained from the qualitative studies were integrated with insights gleaned from the literature to finalize the study’s conceptual model. The main study was based on a descriptive research design, and data were collected through an online survey. Structural equation modeling was the main technique used to test the model.

Health consciousness, level of knowledge and involvement in consumer purchase intentions affect either attitude or perceived behavioral control. Moreover, attitudes toward OTCs and perceived behavioral control were significant predictors of purchase intentions for OTC drugs. At the same time, subjective norms did not have a significant effect.

Knowing what influences consumer purchase intentions contributes to developing more effective marketing strategies and actions.

This study took an integrative approach to understanding the effect of personal and rational factors within the TPB framework for a changing tendency in consumer behavior of specific product categories.

The purpose of this paper is to explain and analyze recent US Congressional, Obama Administration, and financial services industry initiatives to reform and regulate the market for OTC derivatives.

The paper outlines Congressional committee bills, other Obama Administration initiatives, and industry self‐regulatory initiatives and discusses underlying current issues such as which derivatives would and would not have to be cleared through central counterparties (CCPs); how standardized and customized derivatives would be distinguished from each other; potential margin, business conduct, reporting, and recordkeeping standards for OTC derivatives dealers; how fraud, market manipulation, and other market abuses would be policed; possible limitations on the types of parties that may participate in unregulated derivatives; possible resolution of the sometimes confusing and overlapping authority of the SEC and CFTC over OTC derivatives; how and by which federal or state authority credit default swaps (CDS) might be regulated; the potential for regulatory arbitrage; and the danger that stringent regulation in the USA will drive OTC derivatives business offshore.

Unlike markets for other financial instruments, derivatives market participants, largely through ISDA, have for some time cooperated closely with the New York Fed and engaged in a myriad self‐policing activities. Time will tell whether this existing framework, combined with the redoubled self‐policing efforts of market participants, will cause policymakers to seek appropriate legislation that will not threaten the preservation of the OTC derivatives market in the USA.

The paper presents a clear and detailed guide and explanation of recent regulatory initiatives and underlying issues.

This paper aims to study the effects of order of market entry on market share in prescription (Rx) and over‐the‐counter (OTC) pharmaceutical drugs market.

Data on sales, price, direct‐to‐physicians (DTP) advertising, and direct‐to‐consumers (DTC) advertising for three Rx drugs categories and two OTC drugs categories were obtained for the period, January 1998 to December 1999. A log‐log statistical model was estimated using OLS methodology.

There is a significant order of entry effect on market share in both Rx and OTC drugs categories. This effect is higher in magnitude in the OTC category than in the Rx category. The effects of price, and DTP and DTC advertising are also significant. The differential effects of DTP and DTC advertising in the Rx and OTC categories are intuitive.

This study is unique in studying the differential effects of order‐of‐entry, and DTP and DTC advertising on market share in Rx and OTC drugs product categories.

In the context of online travel communities (OTCs), this paper aims to identify the relationships between value-creating practices, trusting beliefs, solution acceptance and stickiness and the moderating effects of risk aversion on the relationship between trusting beliefs and solution acceptance and on that between trusting beliefs and stickiness.

A total of 408 survey responses obtained from Amazon website panels were used to test the proposed hypotheses through a structural equation modeling analysis.

The results show that three dimensions of value-creating practices, namely, social networking, community engagement and brand use, had positive effects on trusting beliefs; trusting beliefs had positive effects on solution acceptance and stickiness; and solution acceptance had a positive effect on stickiness. Risk aversion moderated the trusting beliefs-stickiness relationship.

A key limitation of this study is related to the sample collected from Amazon website panels, which may limit the generalizability of results to other OTC members. The results have important theoretical and practical implications in OTC settings. For example, OTCs should be used by members as key platforms for acquiring trust information prior to their behaviors.

This study extends the OTC literature by integrating different research realms into the proposed research model for a better understanding of the relationships between value-creating practices, trusting beliefs and OTC behaviors.

The rapid proliferation of drugs being switched from prescription (Rx) to over‐the‐counter (OTC) status within the USA has raised a number of important consumer behavior and public policy concerns. The following issue served as the focus of our research. Given the increasing assortment and widespread availability of Rx to OTC switch drugs, how might consumers’ health care preferences change? That is, what factors influence whether a consumer is more likely to visit their physician rather than self‐medicate symptoms of heartburn and indigestion with a new switch drug?

This paper aims to explore market dynamics and strategic issues that contribute to a late entrant's success in achieving market leadership in the prescription (Rx) and over‐the‐counter (OTC) markets. In the Rx market, consumers must receive physicians' approval before purchasing the product. In the OTC market, consumers make the final drug choice.

Data on sales (both Rx and OTC) and direct‐to‐consumer advertising expenditures for nine gastrointestinal drug products were obtained covering a 17‐year period. Ordinary least squares regression was employed.

The findings show that late‐market entrants, despite existing challenges, can become market leaders. This applies to both the Rx and OTC markets, via varying mechanisms.

This study is unique in demonstrating the differential mechanism in achieving market success for late entrants in the Rx and OTC markets.

The aim of this paper is to explore, through exploratory qualitative research, how perceptions of involvement and risk, for female consumers, influences their information search and product evaluation decision‐making for over‐the‐counter (OTC) painkillers.

In‐depth interviews were conducted amongst 25 female OTC painkiller purchasers from one pharmacy. Females are more engaged with and have a greater likelihood to use OTC medication. Despite the benefits of applying qualitative approaches when researching self‐medication, there are few self‐care qualitative studies.

Despite the greater availability and awareness of OTC medicines, the purchasing process is still underpinned by inherent risk. Alongside base levels of involvement, painkillers had situational importance with there being unease as to the risk involved. Consumers felt uncertainty as to the worth of their knowledge and this was compounded by a lack of informational clarity. Finally, the risk of side‐effects and the relative importance of subjective beliefs often took precedence during evaluation.

Information needs to be made more accessible, whilst there is scope to capitalise upon family history as interpersonal sources were deemed to be empathetic. As the study was conducted once in a “local” setting, the time span and level of interactivity could be extended by studying consumers “lived experiences”. Triangulated research amongst related parties, such as pharmacists, could build on this exploratory study.

OTC medicine sales have grown with self‐medicating consumers purchasing painkillers the most frequently. Previous research has stemmed from medical sociology, pharmacy practice and public policy, and there is a lack of contemporary (UK) consumer behaviour research on OTC painkiller purchasing.

The over‐the‐counter (OTC) drug market is highly competitive, and consumer advertising is a prominent influence in OTC drug purchase and consumption. Given current marketplace conditions, it is important to summarize OTC drug advertising research. This paper aims to review the state of the public research literature on OTC drug advertising and provide a research agenda derived from the findings.

A literature review was conducted to identify the key themes in OTC drug advertising research and secondary data were collected about the regulation, nature, functions, and scope of OTC drug advertising.

Most pharmaceutical advertising studies have focused on prescription drugs, including the majority of direct‐to‐consumer advertising investigations. OTC drug advertising has received considerably less empirical attention. Since the mid‐1970s, only 24 OTC drug advertising studies have appeared sporadically in the literature. The cumulative findings are interesting and suggestive but dated, fragmented, and incomplete. Though research interest has waned, OTC drug markets and advertising spending have not. Advertising remains a prominent OTC drug purchase and consumption driver, likely spurred on by self‐medication and Rx‐to‐OTC drug switching. The state of the public research, the social and policy implications of self‐medication, and the growing OTC drug market signal that it is time to revisit OTC drug advertising content, processes, and effects.

The paper puts the subject of OTC drug advertising back on the radar of communication, advertising, and pharmaceutical marketing researchers and offers an agenda of research questions derived from the reviewed literature to guide and stimulate future studies.

The outbreak and continuation of COVID-19 have spawned the transformation of traditional teaching models to a certain extent. The Chinese Ministry of Education’s guidance on “keep learning and teaching during class suspension” has made OTC and learning (OTC) become routinized, and the public’s emotional attitudes toward OTC have also evolved over time. The purpose of this study is to segment the emotional text data and introduce it into the topic model to reveal the evolution process and stage characteristics of public emotional polarity and public opinion of OTC topics during public health emergencies in the context of social media participation. The research has important guiding significance for the development of OTC and can influence and improve the efficiency and effect of OTC to a certain extent. The analysis of online public opinion can provide suggestions for the government and media to guide the trend of public opinion and optimize the OTC model.

This paper takes the topic of “OTC” on Zhihu during the COVID-19 epidemic as an example, combined with the characteristics of public opinion changes, chooses Boson emotional dictionary and time series analysis method to build an OTC network public opinion theme evolution analysis framework that integrates emotional analysis and topic mining. Finally, an empirical analysis of the dynamic evolution of the communication network for each stage of the life cycle of a specific topic is realized.

This paper draws the following conclusions: (1) Through the emotional value table and the change trend chart of the number of comments, the analysis found that the number of positive comments is greater than the number of negative comments, which can be inferred that the public gradually accepts “OTC” and presents a positive emotional state. (2) By observing the changing trend of the average daily emotional value of the public, it is found that the overall emotional value shows a stable development trend after a large fluctuation. From the actual emotional value and the fitted emotional value curve, it can be seen that the overall curve fit is good, so ARIMA (12, 1, 6) can accurately predict the dynamic trend of the daily average emotional value in this paper. Therefore, based on the above-mentioned public opinion, emotional analysis research, relevant countermeasures and suggestions are put forward, which is conducive to guiding the development direction of public opinion in a positive way.

Taking the topic of “OTC” in Zhihu as an example, this paper combines Boson emotional dictionary and time series to conduct a series of research analyses. Boson emotional dictionary can analyze the public’s emotional tendency, and time series can well analyze the intrinsic structure and complex features of the data to predict the future values. The combination of the two research methods allows for an adequate and unique study of public emotional polarization and the evolution of public opinion.

The purpose of this paper is to explore some commonly held beliefs about individuals investing in over-the-counter (OTC) stocks (those traded on Over-the-counter Bulletin Board (OTCBB) and Pink Sheets), a fairly pervasive activity. The authors frame the analysis within the context of direct gambling, aspirational preferences in behavioral portfolios, and private information.

Contrary to popular perceptions, the modeling of the deliberate act of buying OTC stocks at a discount brokerage house finds that unlike the typical lottery buyers/gamblers, OTC investors are older, wealthier, more experienced at investing, and display greater portfolio diversification than their non-OTC investing counterparts.

Behavioral portfolio investors (Shefrin and Statman, 2000) invest their money in layers, each of which corresponds to an aspiration or goal. Consistent with sensation seeking and aspirations in behavioral portfolios, OTC investors also display higher trading activity. Penny stocks seem to have different characteristics and trading behavior than other OTC stocks priced over one dollar. Irrespective of the price of OTC stocks, the authors find little evidence of information content in OTC trades.

The paper provides insight into individual investor decision making by empirically exploring the demographic and portfolio characteristics of individuals trading in OTC stocks.