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Article
Publication date: 5 September 2023

Sevgi Salman Unver, Selime Sezgin and Nimet Uray

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…

Abstract

Purpose

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.

Design/methodology/approach

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.

Findings

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.

Practical implications

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

Originality/value

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.

Details

International Journal of Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Marketing, vol. 17 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1750-6123

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 February 2023

Olfa Berrich and Halim Dabbou

This study aims to explore the failures of Tunisian secondary corporate bond market liquidity to understand the determinants of corporate bond market liquidity at large.

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to explore the failures of Tunisian secondary corporate bond market liquidity to understand the determinants of corporate bond market liquidity at large.

Design/methodology/approach

We adopted a qualitative approach to studying the Tunisian Stock Exchange. Dealers’ perceptions were collected through semi-structured face-to-face interviews; the data was recorded, transcribed and thematically analysed.

Findings

Secondary corporate bond market failures are due, in part, to microstructural choices – especially the use of an over-the-counter market as a trading venue. The absence of a corporate bond yield curve, a narrow investor base, market participants’ lack of financial education and authorities’ attitudes are equally responsible.

Research limitations/implications

This study is useful to researchers, policymakers and practitioners, as it identifies microstructural and other factors affecting the Tunisian secondary corporate bond market. We interviewed only Tunisian dealers while ignoring other categories of market participants. Furthermore, a focus group discussion could have improved our understanding of the determinants of the Tunisian secondary corporate bond market.

Originality/value

This paper aimed to qualitatively discuss several issues related to the Tunisian secondary corporate bond market. To date, little academic research has addressed this topic in the illiquid and non-transparent corporate bond markets.

Details

Qualitative Research in Financial Markets, vol. 15 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1755-4179

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 10 August 2023

Adrienne Heritier

This paper aims to conceptualize and empirically illustrate the challenges that financial market regulation presents to politicians and the organization tasked with specifying…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to conceptualize and empirically illustrate the challenges that financial market regulation presents to politicians and the organization tasked with specifying regulations and supervising their implementation in the interest of users and consumers of financial instruments. It analyses the problem from the viewpoint of the governor's dilemma and the control/competence conflict, the linked problem of the rent-seeking of agents/intermediators and consumers of financial instruments. Political accountability problems are enhanced by the materiality of the technologies used, i.e. algo trading.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper theoretically conceptualizes and empirically illustrates the argument.

Findings

The paper finds that regulators of digitalized financial markets are faced with considerable problems and depend on private agents when regulating financial transactions. However, the new technological instruments also offer new possibilities for securing compliance.

Research limitations/implications

Further research should focus more in-depth on the cooperation between public and private actors in the specification and implementation of regulatory details. It should further investigate the conditions which allow regulators to use RegTech in the surveillance of financial firms.

Practical implications

Since financial market transactions are opaque for most users, the creation of more transparency is crucial to hold regulators accountable in their activity of surveillance of financial firms. New algorithm-based technologies may lend important support in doing so.

Originality/value

By linking the different analytical perspectives, i.e. the governor's dilemma vis-à-vis the intermediator or agent and the possible rent-seeking of intermediators, under the condition of a highly developed technology of financial transactions as well as the market structure, the paper offers new insights into the limits as well as new opportunities of regulating financial markets allowing for political accountability of regulators and financial firms.

Details

International Trade, Politics and Development, vol. 7 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2586-3932

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 4 April 2024

De-Wai Chou, Pi-Hsia Hung and Lin Lin

This study focuses on listed and over-the-counter (OTC) companies in the Taiwan Stock Exchange. It found that an increase in the ownership proportion of institutional investors…

Abstract

This study focuses on listed and over-the-counter (OTC) companies in the Taiwan Stock Exchange. It found that an increase in the ownership proportion of institutional investors (INs), including foreign investors, investment trusts, and dealers can enhance the informativeness of stock prices. The relationship between these factors follows an inverted U-shaped pattern, indicating that excessively high ownership ratios can actually lead to a decrease in the informativeness of stock prices. Additionally, increasing the ownership proportions of foreign investors and investment trusts can reduce the risk of stock price collapse, while dealers show no significant relationship in this regard. This study also reveals that the technical variable of the price deviation rate is an important explanatory factor for post-collapse returns. It is positively correlated with the magnitude of the price decline after a collapse, meaning that stocks with weaker pre-collapse performance experience larger post-collapse declines. When the data during the 2020 pandemic period are excluded, changes in foreign ownership ratios show a significant positive correlation with postcrash returns in both the long and short term. The significant correlation in the short term may be due to a high proportion of foreign ownership. Any reduction in this could put pressure on stock prices, and retail investors may follow suit and sell-off, using foreign investors as a reference. The significant correlation in the long term might be due to foreign investors themselves possibly also trying to avoid the pressure that their own short-term sell-offs could exert on stock prices. The changes in the ownership ratios of investment trusts and dealers indicate that medium and long-term changes have a significant impact on postcrash returns, while the changes in the major players' ownership show no significant correlation. When data from 2020 are included in the analysis, the significance of all INs decreases.

Details

Advances in Pacific Basin Business, Economics and Finance
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-83753-865-2

Keywords

Case study
Publication date: 12 December 2023

Ratna Achuta Paluri and Girish Ranjan Mishra

This case study will allow students to critically analyse and develop entry strategies into untapped foreign markets. The case study was designed to introduce students to…

Abstract

Learning outcomes

This case study will allow students to critically analyse and develop entry strategies into untapped foreign markets. The case study was designed to introduce students to identifying and analysing information related to target markets for expansions in international business.

The main objectives of this case are to evaluate and make the “Go Global” decision for the company; to take a position on entry timing for a company for entering an overseas market; to select a country for entry based on cultural, administrative, geographic and economic analysis and other relevant factors; and to evaluate a firm’s readiness for exports.

Case overview/synopsis

This case study on Satya Pharmaceuticals presents a typical dilemma faced by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in emerging markets such as India while exploring the untapped overseas markets to expand their business. Satya Pharmaceuticals produced over-the-counter Ayurvedic medicines. With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the consumer preference for Ayurvedic products had increased globally. Home country governments’ emphasis on exports and conducive consumer preferences created an opportune time for such SMEs to explore uncharted markets with a propensity for herbal medicines. Amidst strict regulations regarding safety, efficacy, labelling and packaging norms, along with a subjective understanding of the consumers’ sentiments regarding alternate medicines, SMEs had to select their target market carefully for their products to be successful overseas. This case study presents the basic information that entrepreneurs needed to explore the foreign markets. It revolved around checking firms’ preparedness to explore foreign markets, identifying target markets, timing the entry and entering those markets.

Complexity academic level

This case is appropriate for graduate-level courses in management that offer subjects such as international business.

Supplementary material

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

Subject code

CSS 5: International business.

Article
Publication date: 6 November 2023

Miriam Eugenia Wolf, Agnes Emberger-Klein and Klaus Menrad

This paper aims to determine, which values guide consumers decision-making on natural health products for concentration and cognition (NHPCC) and how they link to choice-relevant…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to determine, which values guide consumers decision-making on natural health products for concentration and cognition (NHPCC) and how they link to choice-relevant product attributes. The purpose is to contribute to a better understanding of NHPCC consumption choices, which can encourage more consumer-centric product development and positioning.

Design/methodology/approach

Based on the means-end chain approach, in-depth laddering interviews with 26 consumers of NHP were conducted in Germany from October to December 2020. Qualitative content analysis was applied and a hierarchical value map over the dominant association was built and analyzed.

Findings

Five terminal values were found to be relevant for NHPCC decision-making. The personal focused values security, self-direction and stimulation are via health mainly associated with trust and a conscious decision-making, which is linked to the product attributes of effectiveness, tolerance and declaration. Social focused values of universalism or benevolence guide attention on the attributes of sustainability and regionality.

Originality/value

The study contributes to close the knowledge gap concerning the linkages between abstract values and concrete product attributes of NHP through associated consequences. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that analyzed these links for NHPCC, although such products are gaining more interest among companies and consumers. Companies can benefit from the outcomes by developing more consumer-centric product concepts and marketing communication strategies for NHPCC. Due to higher attention on relevant information, consumers’ decision-making could become safer and more conscious.

Details

International Journal of Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Marketing, vol. 18 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1750-6123

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 31 August 2023

Danladi Chiroma Husaini, Florita Bolon, Natasha Smith, Rhondine Reynolds, Shenille Humes and Verlene Cayetano

Increased outsourcing and importation of drugs from different parts of the world to the Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) region result in the proliferation of substandard and…

Abstract

Purpose

Increased outsourcing and importation of drugs from different parts of the world to the Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) region result in the proliferation of substandard and fake medicines, posing a threat to public health. The presence of substandard and fake medications in LAC regions is a source of public health concern and causes an economic burden to the governments in these regions. Whereas testing and detecting medication quality can easily be achieved in developed countries, the situation is different in developing countries such as LAC. This paper aims to examine the public health challenges faced by LAC regarding substandard, fake and counterfeit medicines and how the region can tackle these challenges.

Design/methodology/approach

Databases such as Scopus, PubMed, ScienceDirect, Embase, HINARI, EBSCOhost, Google Scholar, unpublished data, conference abstracts and papers from World Health Organization, Pan-American Health Organization and electronic newspapers were searched concerning medicine quality and in LAC.

Findings

Drug treatment improves the quality of life while decreasing morbidity and mortality among diseased populations. Absence of or inadequate testing laboratories, old and ineffective legislature, lack of enforcement or willpower and lack of effective surveillance are challenges in LAC for the proliferation of substandard and falsified medicines (SFMs).

Research limitations/implications

The most significant limitation of this study was the need for the reviewers to have used articles written in other languages besides English. The LAC region has a large population in non-English-speaking countries, and many articles are written using local languages. Hence, excluding those articles is a limitation worthy of note in this review. The articles accessed needed to provide adequate information on SFM markets and illegal pharmacies or hospitals but did not. Future reviews may focus on providing illegal substandard and falsified medicines markets in the region and how they can be minimized or eliminated.

Originality/value

This review highlights the challenges faced by LAC countries regarding substandard, fake and counterfeit medicines. The sources, prevalence and consequences of substandard and falsified drugs were identified to suggest the measures needed to curb the infiltration of low-quality medicines in LAC.

Details

International Journal of Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Marketing, vol. 17 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1750-6123

Keywords

Content available
Article
Publication date: 2 October 2023

Satya Sahoo, Liping Jiang and Dong-Wook Song

In the shipping industry, both sales and purchases of second-hand ships and freight transport services are prevalently tailormade and traded with intense bilateral negotiations…

Abstract

Purpose

In the shipping industry, both sales and purchases of second-hand ships and freight transport services are prevalently tailormade and traded with intense bilateral negotiations. Price bargaining is the key step of this negotiation process and plays a crucial role in determining mutually agreed prices. Despite its cruciality and applicability, the price bargaining has yet received due conceptual and/or theoretical attention in the shipping literature. This paper attempts to conceptually examine the role of bargaining in shipping transaction prices and subsequently puts forward directions for future research. In doing so, the paper focuses on two types of transactions taking place in shipping markets: asset market trading of second-hand vessels and service market trading shipping freights.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper begins with a systematic literature review of price bargaining in the field of economics and management disciplines from a game-theoretic perspective. This approach does logically lead to the establishment of a conceptual framework for price bargaining in shipping sub-markets as a step toward having taken into consideration a variety of heterogeneities commonly present in trading activities and market dynamics.

Findings

A set of research areas has been consequently identified where price bargaining and mechanisms for the shipping freight and asset markets could be further explored and analyzed in a way to make better pricing decisions under a more tangible framework.

Research limitations/implications

One of the critical challenges when using bargaining mechanisms to make a decision on pricing shipping services and assets is how to operationalize the study for empirical investigation as some of the factors are internal information of the players and are not adequately revealed to externals: that is, an imperfect information sharing case. The current study aims, however, not to conduct an empirical analysis but to initiate a conversation among maritime economists by bringing their attention to this not-yet fully explored and potentially impactful field of research and by asking them to treat bargaining from a perspective for pricing shipping assets and services. It is claimed that, by doing so, one could better understand price differences between individual contracts.

Originality/value

This study would be considered the first of its kind to provide a detailed survey of the bargaining theory and models from a game theoretical perspective as a theoretical lens to understand its importance and relevance in pricing shipping assets and services. It also provides a simplified operational case on utilizing bargaining in practically pricing freight services.

Details

Maritime Business Review, vol. 8 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2397-3757

Keywords

Case study
Publication date: 8 November 2023

Jayanth R. Varma and Rahul Ghosh

Northern Textiles (NTL) used highly complex derivatives to hedge its currency risk, and these structured products have been profitable in the past. But in 2008, unanticipated…

Abstract

Northern Textiles (NTL) used highly complex derivatives to hedge its currency risk, and these structured products have been profitable in the past. But in 2008, unanticipated movements in exchange rates have led to serious losses. Seth, the Chairman of NTL, has come to know about the losses on a specific deal, but the Treasurer has ensured that he is the only person who understands the derivative book in its entirety. Though Seth is not aware of how grave the problem is, he realizes that he must review NTL's risk management policies and perhaps even replace the CFO.

Details

Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, vol. no.
Type: Case Study
ISSN: 2633-3260
Published by: Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 3 July 2023

Howard Chitimira

It is important to note that insider trading is currently outlawed under the Securities Act 17 of 2004 (Chapter 24: 25) as amended (Securities Act) in Zimbabwe. This Act…

Abstract

Purpose

It is important to note that insider trading is currently outlawed under the Securities Act 17 of 2004 (Chapter 24: 25) as amended (Securities Act) in Zimbabwe. This Act enumerates some practices that may give rise to insider trading liability in the Zimbabwean financial markets. Nonetheless, numerous challenges, such as the lack of adequate financial resources, the lack of sufficient persons with the relevant skills and expertise on the part of the enforcement authorities, lack of political will, inadequacy of insider trading provisions, poor cooperation and collaboration between the relevant authorities and the ongoing coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic have negatively impeded the effective regulation and combating of insider trading in Zimbabwe. To this end, the author explores the stated challenges and recommend measures that could be used by regulatory bodies and other relevant enforcement authorities to enhance the regulation and combating of insider trading in the Zimbabwean financial markets. This study aims to enhance the detection and combating of insider trading in Zimbabwe.

Design/methodology/approach

A qualitative research methodology is used through the analysis of relevant legislation and case law.

Findings

It is hoped that the findings and recommendations made in this study will be considered by the Zimbabwean policymakers.

Research limitations/implications

The study does not use empirical research methodology.

Practical implications

The findings and recommendations made in this study could enhance the combating of insider trading activities in Zimbabwe.

Social implications

The study seeks to curb insider trading in the Zimbabwean financial markets and financial institutions in the wake of the covid-19 pandemic-related regulatory and enforcement challenges.

Originality/value

The study provides original research on the regulation and combating of insider trading activities in Zimbabwe.

Details

Journal of Financial Crime, vol. 30 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1359-0790

Keywords

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