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This paper examines the behaviour of Japanese pharmaceutical corporations in the light of recent merger activity, questioning strategic momentum theory given the particularly significant influence of culture on the decision‐making process in this market. The international performance of Japan’s pharmaceutical industry has been poor; therefore, we examine the regional orientation of the top global pharmaceutical TNCs, inquiring as to why there has not been greater convergence among Triad countries. Irrespective of cultural differences, this industry has been slow to respond to international macro change, but mergers, acquisitions, and other convergence strategies are now being observed.

The objectives of this paper are to describe the “affordable drugs movement” and present a social marketing framework to place major developments within a meaningful theoretical context.

Specific examples are used to illustrate the framework and its utility in understanding the complexities of the pharmaceutical market. Methods to research the dynamics of the market are also presented.

Provides referenced descriptions and examples of forces causing change within the pharmaceutical market. Classifies forces into six conditions influencing successful social movements: structural conduciveness, structural strains, growth of generalized beliefs, precipitating events, mobilization for action, and utilization of social control by opponents. Suggests social research methodologies to study the conditions in greater depth.

This is a descriptive framework that has not been validated for its use in the pharmaceutical market.

Offers a useful framework for academics, managers, students, and individuals to classify and study developments in the pharmaceutical industry.

This paper provides an overview of major forces within the pharmaceutical market and offers direction for those who wish to explore it in greater detail.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the most relevant marketing factors and examine existing theories and to provide guidance for planning future studies. Since drug markets are very complex, this paper will focus on a particular market/country to reduce some of this complexity.

A serial research study is undertaken to examine the essential marketing success factors by means of two qualitative studies applying Focus group and Delphi survey techniques. Swiss healthcare professionals in middle and senior management positions (Focus group n=5, Delphi group n=11) are asked to voice their personal opinion regarding the importance of various factors that might influence the turnover of prescription drugs. The fundamental findings derived from the Focus group interview are used for the Delphi group survey set‐up. To reach a consensus within the Delphi group, a three‐step interactive procedure is applied. For the evaluation of the Focus group results, a content analysis is performed. The results of the Delphi study are investigated, using descriptive statistics.

The paper ultimately yields a ranking of 29 instruments perceived to be important in the marketing of pharmaceuticals in Switzerland. With this paper, the proposed model and its propositions could be supported.

This paper investigates their relevance based upon practical experience of Swiss health care professionals and is therefore somewhat limited to the Swiss market.

In the Swiss market, successful marketing has to consider appropriate product properties including issues such as efficacy and safety plus a promotion policy that emphasizes relationship with opinion leaders and personal selling. Additionally, it is vital that the product is also distributed via sales channels such as hospitals and physicians and that the product will be reimbursed by health insurance.

These findings will enable pharmaceutical companies to improve their sales success. The proposed model can be extended to other markets and countries.

Discusses the relative merits of standardized and customized marketing strategies for organizations operating in international markets. Suggests that the suitability of either strategy is heavily dependent on market and environmental conditions. Reports on an examination of the characteristics of the pharmaceutical industry and the extent to which the marketing environment favours standardization. Presents empirical evidence of the extent to which marketing is standardized and suggests that the link between market characteristics and the degree of standardization is weak.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the wealth effects of the issuance of guidelines by the Office of Inspector General (OIG) to encourage pharmaceutical manufacturers to use internal controls or self‐regulation “to efficiently monitor adherence to applicable statutes, regulations, and program requirements” in their marketing to the physicians.

The authors employ a standard event‐study methodology to examine the impact on shareholders of 12 large pharmaceutical firms around four events leading up to the final guidance issued by the OIG.

The overall results indicate a net wealth loss for the sample firms.

Interpretation of results warrants caution since the sample is biased toward large multinational pharmaceutical firms that are listed on the USA stock exchanges. The issuance of high‐level government policy initiative triggers a pharmaceutical industry response that in turn mitigated firms' questionable marketing practices. The government accomplishes this without instituting regulation but by taking the dialogue to a wide‐ranging and highly public forum.

The empirical results suggest that a public policy initiative that impacts shareholder wealth could alter firm (industry) behavior thereby sparing government from enacting regulation and potentially saving exorbitant regulatory enactment, enforcement, and policing costs. The results also provide credence to the argument that the hybrid systems, ones that combine industry rule making with government oversight, provide the greatest potential for overall benefits to society.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of direct-to-physician promotion on physicians’ prescription behaviour. There were very few studies which have investigated to what extent the pharmaceutical promotion directed towards physicians influences physicians’ prescription behaviour in the Malaysian context.

A research framework has been developed based on the buyer behaviour stimulus-response model. A survey method has been used to collect data from 154 medical practitioners from private health-care facilities located at Klang valley in Malaysia. IBM SPSS and SmartPLS statistical programs have been used to analyse the data and validate the model.

This study found that personal selling is the most significant promotional tool for physicians’ prescription behaviour, whereas advertising is the least significant one. Sales promotion and public relations are the second and third most significant promotional tools. Direct marketing is found to be not significant.

This paper will help the pharmaceutical companies develop more effective plans to gain a competitive advantage for their business by having a guideline for pharmaceutical marketers as an input to the more efficient allocation of their promotional budgets.

This study has introduced a comprehensive understanding of all the factors in the pharmaceutical promotion that influence physicians’ prescription behaviour in Malaysia and how these factors are interrelated, influencing physicians’ prescribing medicines for patients.

The pharmaceutical industry in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has been highly regulated, particularly ethical products. Promulgation of the socialist market economy and the recent reforms in national healthcare industry have compelled impetuses for change in the distribution systems, forms of investment of multinational pharmaceutical companies, and product/market strategies. The conventional wisdom on pioneer marketing may be challenged by these situations in the PRC. This study examines four markets that encompass both specialty and general pharmaceuticals so as to explore whether there is a product category effect on entry strategies. The findings indicate a possible synergistic effect of product category and order of entry. In addition, product life cycle has a direct impact on order of entry whereas brand position has an effect on product category. Both government policies and corporate strategies have implications on product categories and order of entry. The recent reforms in China have helped to build a foundation for pharmaceutical companies to conduct business in a manner that is similar to that of the developed countries. The entry strategies for pharmaceuticals may therefore involve more complicated considerations in accordance with these new arrangements in the legal and regulatory environments. Further research into relationships among these variables and the mediation effect is therefore indicated.

The purpose of this study is to empirically explore the predictors of e-marketing use continuance intention in the pharmaceutical business to business (B2B) supply chain during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This study adopted survey research strategy, and data were collected from managers dealing with marketing in 127 pharmaceutical firms in Harare Zimbabwe using a self-reported questionnaire. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was employed to test the hypotheses.

Leadership support and perceived usefulness are significant predictors of e-marketing continuance intentions. The effect of perceived susceptibility and perceived severity on e-marketing use continuance intention was not significant. Perceived usefulness is a positive moderator in the relationship among leadership support, perceived susceptibility and e-marketing use continuance intention. However, the moderating effect of perceived usefulness created a significant but negative relationship between perceived severity and e-marketing use continuance intention.

This study provides empirical evidence of the moderating role of perceived usefulness in the relationships between e-marketing continuance intention and its predictors.

The US Senate hearings on pricing in the market for drugs in 1959, and lasting ten months, was part of a series of wider senatorial hearings into a range of American industries including the markets for milk, bread, automobiles, and steel, undertaken by the Senate Subcommittee on Antitrust and Monopoly, chaired by Senator Estes Kefauver of Tennessee between 1957 and 1963. The study examines how a body that had the initial investigational remit to examine the subject of ‘administered prices’ in the drug industry, became instead largely a systematic critique of the marketing activities and techniques practiced by pharmaceutical firms of the day.

The study draws on the Senate Subcommittee hearings for prescription drugs.

Three objectionable marketing practices were identified by the Antitrust Subcommittee: the use of sales representatives and high-pressure sales techniques; industry promotional practices, expenditure and deceptiveness; and the role of drug branding to hold consumers captive to major brands.

Rather than being an investigation that was perceived by some as out of tune with the major events of the day (most notably civil rights), it will be demonstrated that, far from being an anachronism, the hearings were an important precursor to the consumer rights movement, which peaked in the 1960s and 1970s, and a link will be established between antitrust issues and contemporary consumer politics.

The paper demonstrates the historical value of studying regulatory body appraisals of marketing practices.

This paper aims to explore the influence of marketing investment on drug diffusion processes, to analyze the heterogeneity of the diffusion characteristics and to understand the drug diffusion patterns in the prescription and over-the-counter (OTC) markets.

The study introduces marketing investment into the Bass model. The authors use the Generalized Bass Model (GBM) to examine the influence of marketing efforts on drug diffusion in Chinese prescription and OTC markets.

The results of this study suggest that the imitation effect in the prescription drug market is greater than that in the OTC drug market; drug diffusion in the OTC market reaches saturation earlier in the diffusion process. Before reaching the critical state, the effect of marketing investment on drug diffusion in the OTC market is greater than that in the prescription market, and after the critical state, drug diffusion in the prescription market is more sensitive to marketing investment.

The study demonstrates the value of the GBM in empirical analyses of drug diffusion across two distinct markets, and the marketing regulation policies governments adopt have a powerful impact on the speed at which drugs become available in different markets. It enriches the extant product diffusion literature by highlighting the different diffusion patterns of the two segments of pharmaceutical market.