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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.

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.

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.

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 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?

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.

This study aims at verifying the impact of literacy on over-the-counter (OTC) drug consumer vulnerability as evaluated by health literacy and label comprehension.

The item response theory (IRT) was used to estimate the health literacy of two groups and the two-way analysis of variance tests was used to test the hypotheses for the existence of mean differences between the two populations. The convenience sample involved 188 OTC consumers: 94 (50%) poorly literate and 94 (50%) university students/graduates.

University consumers/graduates have a level of health literacy and label comprehension that is superior to those presented by poor literate consumers. Also, age does not influence the level of health literacy by OTC drug users but has a significant impact on the understanding of OTC drug labels. Finally, the level of schooling and the “age group,” simultaneously, does not impact the understanding of OTC drug labels or health literacy.

This study has added in the field of knowledge by investigating the behavior of poor literate consumers in Brazil, a developing country. The results may be relevant to Marketing professionals, especially those in the pharmaceutical industry, and to police makers, as they help identify the main problems faced by poorly literate consumers.

It is necessary to raise awareness of the dangers of self-medication and wrong use of medications, mainly focused on people with low literacy. As a suggestion, a simple glossary presented along with the label could provide explanations of scientific terms, thus increasing health literacy and reducing the vulnerability of the consumers.

This study showed that when using common words such as gastritis to define a health problem, there is a higher degree of correctness. These results suggest the adoption of a more straightforward language and more precise explanations. By doing that, the pharmaceutical industry and policymakers will improve their social impact by increasing consumer power and taking care of the health of the most vulnerable population: the illiterate people.

This study contributes to the international literature, as it enhances and clarifies the knowledge about the customers’ power and vulnerability in developing countries. It fills a gap by evaluating label comprehension and heath literacy at the same time, giving an academic contribution for pharmaceutical consumers’ studies.

This study aims to examine the antecedent factors (internal and external) that influence intentions to buy over-the-counter (OTC) medicines in Jordan.

A conceptual framework was developed based on consumer buying behavior theoretical background and a review of the relevant literature. A quantitative approach and a convenience sampling method were used to obtain data from self-administered questionnaires, which were completed by 351 academic staff from selected Jordanian universities.

The results indicate that all antecedent factors (internal, external and combined) have significant positive influences on the intentions to buy OTC medicines. Internal factors are more influential than external factors; however, the combination of internal and external factors resulted in the greatest influence on buying OTC medicines compared to each category separately.

This paper has integrated and examined empirically the antecedent factors that influence intentions to buy OTC medicines (internal, external and combined) in Jordan’s business environment context as a developing country for the first time.

The purpose of this paper is to underline the (hidden) risks posed after the crisis by the exemption of non-financial operators, especially sovereigns, from the regulatory reforms of over the counter (OTC) derivatives undertaken by G20 countries in the absence of accounting data on trading.

Recent financial regulatory improvements are reported to underline that the trading of OTC derivatives by sovereigns and local administrations does not take place under the new regulatory umbrella, because of the relative size of the institution, the lack of incentives to adhere to Centralized Counterparty Systems (CCPs) and most of all, the absence of proper accounting rules. Sovereigns and local administrations have the potential to undermine global financial stability.

The limited availability of accounting data on derivatives’ use by public administrations constitutes a barrier towards a full comprehension of risks involved. Sovereigns should be compelled to adhere to the CCPs and the collateralized system of trading; the short-term costs of adhering to CCPs are worth $20bn.

The new regulatory system failed to explicitly consider the trading of sovereigns and this can reduce the effectiveness of regulation itself and can have negative impact on financial stability; in fact, omitting sovereigns from these regulations represent a significant risk oversight because they are systemically important players, although with a special political power.

Despite progress made in improving the transparency and resilience of OTC derivative markets after the subprime crisis, sovereigns and public administrations are exempted from the new regulation, posing severe risks to financial stability.

In 1997, in this journal, Elizabeth Sheedy published a paper investigating exchange relationships in derivative markets. This paper was significant for two reasons. It was the first article to consider the marketing of these important financial instruments. Second, her article set out a forceful argument that relationships in this context were breaking down, and that the advantages associated with a relationship model of exchange had not appeared, and indeed had to some extent facilitated the series of well publicised derivative disasters. In this paper, the authors respond to Sheedy’s call for further research through an empirical examination of the over‐the‐counter equity derivatives market in the USA and Britain, arguing that while relationships in this market do, to a limited degree, exhibit characteristics atypical of wider financial services contexts, the relationship paradigm continues to be relevant, and indeed inherent, to over‐the‐counter derivative exchange.