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Pharmaceutical sales representatives (PSRs) have been shown to influence the prescribing patterns of physicians. Some of the blame has been shifted from physicians to PSRs due to perceived inadequacies in PSRs' education and certification. The purpose of this paper is to review the literature regarding the current certification requirements for PSRs, motivation for nationally standardized certification and the controversy surrounding pharmaceutical detailing impact on physicians' prescribing behavior.

Articles related to certification for PSRs were identified via searches of PubMed and IPA from inception to March 2011. Search terms included PSRs, PSRs certification, PSRs registration, PSRs education, and PSRs requirements. Articles describing the roles and responsibilities of PSRs, physician and public perception of PSRs, certification processes, and the future of PSRs' roles were included. An internet search was also performed to identify articles in the lay press related to this topic.

This paper shows that the certification for PSRs may become necessary, or even required, to help ensure that the prescribing patterns of physicians are not negatively affected due to false information coming from the PSRs. Therefore, ensuring that PSRs are well certified can lead to better health outcomes for patients. Although pharmaceutical companies do not require certification to gain employment as a sales representative, the certification provides a good knowledge base and insight into the industry.

The paper shows that appropriate training and certification of PSRs may be on the rise for this career path.

Entrepreneurship.

The case can be used to teach behavioural perspective of the entrepreneurship theory for the students of Master of Business Administration (MBA) level. The case may be equally important to teach the marketing and operational context to discuss the perspectives of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

A young Indian professional had left his lucrative job in the pharma industry to start his own business of a small training centre that trained and placed young graduates with various pharmaceutical companies as medical sales representatives (MSRs). Without borrowing anything from the financial institutions, he plunged into the business in a rented room of a school in Kolkata, India. With every sincerity and path-breaking strategy, his vocational centre, named Carreograph Institute of Management Studies (CIMS) became number one in eastern India in training and placing MSRs and managers. With a number of hand-picked professionals from the industry, this young entrepreneur changed the concept of training by introducing short-term courses like Diploma in Pharmaceutical Management to technically prepare pharmacy undergraduates with professional skills and industry overview, Post Graduate Diploma in Pharmaceutical Management to cater to the contemporary management needs of the pharma industry. For the first time in India, Carreograph launched MBA in Pharmaceutical Management in the distance learning mode, and this strategy revolutionised the concept of management teaching in India. With a huge success in MBA, Carreograph was on the verge of launching another path-breaking course, i.e. Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) in pharma in the distance learning mode.

To analyse Tamal Chatterjee's entrepreneurial characteristics, motivations and expertise in the field and how these parameters support his proposed new venture, to consider the effectiveness of his entrepreneurial methods for finding out more about the proposed business area in which he is interested and to evaluate his idea of newly developed MBA and BBA programmes in terms of its expected acceptance among the student communities and consider if and when he should go ahead with expanding his current venture.

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Aims to corroborate the observation which the title states, and answers the question which it poses by drawing on the results of a project conducted at a pharmaceutical company. Results showed that: the roles of sales executive and sales management had primary performance demands which were opposites; the primary attributes required for success in the two roles were also opposites; therefore those who succeed in the sales role because they possess the attributes which that role requires for success can succeed in the management role only if they also possess the opposite attributes; it is known from personality research that personality traits cluster in positive correlations, so people who possess opposite attributes are rare. Discusses the implications of this state of affairs and closes by pulling its separate strands together.

The purpose of this research is to develop a taxonomy of the impact of sales process regulations, guidance statements and laws (henceforth, referred to as “regulations”) on sales behaviours within the pharmaceutical industry, particularly as it relates to those within the USA.

Given the large number of regulations, guidance statements and laws and sales behaviours that comprise the domain of this study, this research uses a “multicenter, parallel-arm clinical trial data gathering method”. This approach aggregated or “stacked” the responses from three individual questionnaires; 7,493 total observations generated by 381 respondents were analyzed.

The analysis produced a six-cluster solution of regulations, guidance statements and laws indicating distinct taxonomic structures of items that affect selling activities.

The research was conducted with a single firm in the USA. Therefore, results may not be applicable to other geographical areas, firms and industries.

The knowledge of which behaviours are perceived by the salespeople to be impacted by what regulations, guidance statements and laws provides managers with a useful tool to sort their own companies’ regulations on the basis of the classification scheme.

This paper provides a novel taxonomic approach to organize sales activities affected by regulations, guidance statements and laws which provides a look at the unintended consequences of the item not compliance. Additionally, it uses a research methodology relatively unknown to social science inquiry.

This case study aims to illustrate the interaction of organizational culture, human resource (HR) policy and firm performance. It contrasts the cultures of two science‐driven organizations – the Navy's nuclear submarine force and Merck, the large pharmaceutical firm – and traces the reaction of one individual to two organizations – the United States nuclear navy and Merck & Co., a large pharmaceutical firm.

This paper is a case study based on field interviews and secondary sources.

The task‐oriented culture of the submarine fleet is compared to Merck's relations and team‐oriented corporate environment. Management skills such as flexibility, power and influence, interpersonal communication, self‐awareness and goal setting can influence career outcomes. Managerial skills are important in all settings, but a given style's efficacy is contingent upon organizational context. Adaptability is important, as is personal mission. Thus, the case examines how organizational culture, HR policies and leadership interact with an individual's career outcomes and organizational performance as well.

Because this is a case study it is not generalizable. However, the issues depicted in the case have been recognized in the managerial skills literature. The case study serves to illustrate and deepen managerial skills concepts.

This case study has illustrative value as well as hypothesis and theory‐building value, but is not generalizable.

There is relatively little research on the specifics of how to apply managerial skills in a corporate setting. Hence, the case covers important, sensitive material of practical and theoretical value.

The purpose of this study is to reveal important insights by examining the relationships of two different field managers’ monitoring styles with performance through salespersons’ engagement.

Data was collected from 318 salespersons’ from 20 pharmaceutical firms. Given the performance-driven nature of the pharmaceutical sales profession, field managers seek to adopt the best monitoring style, which can optimize individual’s performance while providing a healthy work environment.

The results from multivariate analysis show the evidence of positive relationship between interactional monitoring and salespersons’ engagement. The results also confirm that engagement partially mediates the proposed relationships.

Authors assimilate and extend research and theory on field managers’ monitoring, salespersons’ performance and salespersons’ engagement to advance a model of salespersons’ reactions to different monitoring styles based on self-determination theory. Perhaps in no other field, the salespersons-field managers’ relationship is as important as in the field of pharmaceutical selling. The study offers insights about the important consequence of two different monitoring styles; also the study is one of the exceptional efforts to provide evidence regarding the role of engagement in the relationship between two different monitoring styles and salespersons’ performance.

The purpose of the paper is to explore the moderating role of industrial experience in the relationship between different facets of a sales person's satisfaction with the job and his/her intention to quit the job.

The paper is based on the data collected from sales persons from a pharmaceutical company in India. Dimensions of job satisfaction have been specifically developed for this study due to the cultural specificity of the context. The job satisfaction scale was developed through a process of qualitative research.

The paper finds that industry experience moderates the job satisfaction, disinclination to quit relationship for most of the job satisfaction dimensions. Specifically it is seen than Industry experience has a moderating effect when the effect of a salesperson's satisfaction with the organizational HR policies, supervisor satisfaction, compensation policies and career development and disinclination to quit, are considered.

The paper contributes to the existing literature by considering the moderating effect of Industry experience, a variable hitherto not considered in sales management literature. This extends knowledge on the factors that affect a sales person's disinclination to quit – an extremely important factor in sales force management

While this paper extends the already existing knowledge about the moderating variables that affect the relationship between job satisfaction and intention to quit, its original contribution is in terms of the setting – India, as well as the identification of a moderating variable‐industry experience.

This research studied the ascension of 12 female executives in one of the STEM disciplines, the pharmaceutical sector; and sheds a perspective of the setbacks, challenges and progresses these women experienced during their ascent.

The study utilized a qualitative, transcendental, and phenomenological approach.

The findings of this research identified barriers that encapsulated the study participants and created setbacks to their ascent, such as gendered structures, self, peers, direct managers, family and society. Further, this study's results revealed success strategies that represented progresses, such as having sponsors, mentors, leadership development, being flexible, self-branding, and having networks that created resiliency to the setbacks faced by the female executives within the pharmaceutical sector of STEM.

The resulting demographic sample of this research shown in Table 1 includes one diverse, female executive and presents a limitation of the data. Therefore, the underrepresentation of ethnic diversity may be due to the sampling approach or may be due to the additional barriers ethnically diverse females face in this segment of the STEM environment. Intersectionality was not examined in this research, as the primary focus of this research was female executives in the pharmaceutical sector. Further research examining the 360-Degree Gender Sphere theory and the impact of the six Success Strategies to Create Resilience, can be expanded to focus on ethnically diverse females in the broader STEM disciplines. The study results and implications for female leadership within all of STEM disciplines are timely and relevant.

The practical implications include creating awareness for women and men in STEM, of the barriers encountered by women and the success strategies needed to ascend and self-actualize.

The implications of these research findings impact the pharmaceutical industry, all STEM disciplines, policy makers, educational systems and potentially society as a whole.

This study was conducted as original research.