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The purpose of this paper is to explore relationships that seniors (aged 55 and above) experience with prescription pharmaceutical brands, thus attending to situations where consumers have limited control over brand choice.

A phenomenological study was conducted involving interviews with seniors in two Canadian cities. Phenomenology relies on a small number of interviews that are analyzed in depth and describes the lived consumer experience. Data analysis focused on types of relationships participants had experienced with brands and factors that influenced relationships.

Analysis reveals four types of relationships that seniors hold with prescription pharmaceutical brands. The interpersonal relationship metaphor of arranged marriages can be used to describe relationship forms that seniors develop with brands. The quality of relationship seniors have with prescribing physician, who acts as marriage broker, and brand attributes influence relationships with prescription pharmaceutical brands. Consumer's ethos and nature of illness also influence brand relationships.

The study provides insights into brand choice situations where consumers have low control and addresses impact of intermediaries on consumer experiences. It opens the way for further research on mediated brand relationships.

Marketing managers need to understand the role of intermediaries, where applicable, in influencing consumer relationships with brands.

The study closes a gap in academic research (which is sparse) on relationships with prescription pharmaceutical brands held by consumers – specifically older consumers. It also encourages a critical view of the arranged marriage metaphor as a means of understanding consumer‐brand interactions.

The aim of this paper is to describe the development and validation of a two-dimensional scale measuring prescription drug brand personality as identified by consumers.

A total of 483 US respondents rated a subset of 15 well-known prescription medications on 22 different personality traits. A total of 2,245 individual brand evaluations were generated and subsequently analyzed using exploratory factor analysis.

The findings revealed that consumers are in fact able to attribute human personality traits to prescription drugs. A stable and generalizable two-dimensional (competence and innovativeness) scale was established: the Prescription Brand Personality Scale (PBPS).

The “stacked” data structure required to aggregate data across subjects discounts the variation between brands and subjects. The brands included in the study are relatively few compared to consumer brands.

This research has important implications for the expansion of pharmaceutical branding strategies and demonstrates the potential of using brand personality as an effective positioning and differentiation tool.

This is the first study to investigate the existence of prescription drug brand personalities as perceived by consumers as well as the development of the PBPS, specifically for prescription drug brands. The findings have important implications for the development of innovative marketing strategies, and this study lays the groundwork for further investigation into the antecedents and consequences of prescription drug brand personality.

The paper seeks to assess the impact of brand acquisition announcement on the wealth of the acquiring company's shareholders in India. Furthermore, announcement returns have been assessed and compared across FMCG versus pharmaceutical brand acquisitions and domestic versus cross border brand buyouts.

Standard event study methodology has been applied to compute the announcement returns for the overall sample of brand acquisitions. Besides, sectoral and cross border effect has been computed to assess and compare the shareholders' wealth gains of pharmaceutical versus FMCG brand acquisitions and domestic versus cross border buyouts respectively.

The results indicate that the acquiring company shareholders have gained positive and significant returns on the announcement of a brand acquisition as it offers instant access to brand names that are vital for the companies to compete effectively in a dynamic business environment. Further, it gives an assurance of better long‐term prospects for the acquiring company by adding certainty to the future cash flows. However, value creation is not universal; rather it is sector specific and country specific thus yielding higher wealth gains for the FMCG sector brand buyouts than the pharma ones and for the domestic brand acquisition than the foreign ones.

The study tries to establish an interface between marketing and finance literature, by assessing the impact of inorganically acquired brands on shareholder wealth within the framework of event study methodology. The study would go a long way in enabling marketing managers to assess and communicate the financial value of their branding strategies to the investors at large.

Examines five companies from different market segments with initial public offerings in the past five years, representing a wide range of products. The companies were Cabot Microelectronics, Alliance Fiber Optics Products, Adams Golf, King Pharmaceuticals, and Gadzooks Networks. The companies’ stock price trend, revenue, and net gain or losses were evaluated to determine how each of them was performing financially. In addition, each company’s product offerings market trends, product innovations, and market success were examined to determine what factors aid in a company performing well financially. A small perspective was given on the future outlook for a typical company and its products.

Using a sample of large industrial firms from two industries with differing external turbulence ‐ commercial banking and pharmaceutical ‐ hypothesizes that the need for a senior manager of information technology is essential in high‐turbulence industries (commercial banking). This hypothesis was tested by evaluating the performance (as measured by return on investment (ROI) of 50 commercial banking firms and 39 pharmaceutical firms, and the presence of a top level information manager. In the commercial banking industry, statistical analysis did not support the hypothesis of significant differences in performance between those companies with a top‐level information manager and those without. States that, in the pharmaceutical industry, the statistical test supported the hypothesis of significant differences in performance between companies with top‐level information managers and those without.

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.

Launching a new product successfully in a multi-brand portfolio is one of the major challenges a pharmaceutical marketer faces. This study aims to examine the role of detailing of new brands on physicians’ prescription behaviour as compared to established brands. Further, the study explores mediating role of detailing priority and detailing time on the relationship between detailing of new versus established brands and physician’s prescription behaviour.

This study was conducted as a real-world observational study involving field research. In total, 338 physicians, 90 PSRs and 44 field managers participated in this study. A serial mediation model (Hayes, Model 6) was used to examine the relationship. Regression analysis with bootstrapping was used to test the hypotheses.

Detailing of new versus established brands has a differential effect on physicians’ prescription behaviour. In addition, this relationship is serially mediated by detailing priority and detailing time.

Results suggest that detailing priority and detailing time positively and significantly alter the relationship between the detailing of new brands and physicians’ prescription behaviour as compared to established brands. While, in the absence of mediators, established brands generate higher prescriptions than new brands, the serial mediating effect helps new brands to generate more prescriptions as compared to established brands.

This research highlights the importance of detailing priority and detailing time for the successful launch of the new products. It presents compelling evidence for practicing managers to effectively use a “predetermined detailing plan” vis-à-vis “individualized detailing strategy” during the launch of a new brand.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to evaluate the role of detailing priority and detailing time as mediators between the relationship of detailing and physicians’ prescription behaviour. This is also one of the rare studies to use real-world observational study methodology for conducting research.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the physicians’ attitude toward branded generic drugs in prescribing those drugs in some selective medical conditions and to identify the factors that influence physicians’ behavior toward prescribing branded generic drugs in the said selective medical conditions.

The study was carried out across six major cities in eastern India with 301 physicians. The current study introduced some significant elements into the modified technology acceptance model (TAM) with title the extended tam for product usage (TETPU) to analyze the prescribing factors that influence physicians in five common yet serious medical conditions in India. Out of nine factors considered here, seven were selected from the previous literature studies of different product segments and two were proposed by the authors. Demographic factor was proposed as the confounding variable.

The results indicated that apart from the factors “perceived no need” and “physicians’ perception and need achievement” rest of the factors showed satisfactory to excellent results.

The current study findings may enable the pharmaceutical managers to revise or modify their current marketing communication and other brand-building strategies so as to achieve a superior performance that offers them a competitive advantage.

The paper fulfils a need for advancing the knowledge on the physician’s prescription influencing factors by introducing the newer aspects of the concept and offers a theoretical framework for the academia and practical framework for the managers who desire to implement the strategies to achieve competitive advantage.

Pharmaceutical marketers and manufactures create hype of demand among patients towards a specific brand of drug or disease through drug advertisements. It induces the patients to seek additional information of the brand and ask for its prescription generation by the physician. The paper aims to determine the attitude of the physicians towards direct to consumer advertising (DTCA) and to examine the extent of patients’ request for a specific brand which leads to actual prescription generation.

Quantitative study, data was collected from field setting general practicing Doctors/Physicians in the leading hospitals. Quantitative data was collected from physicians working in leading hospitals. Doctors were selected on judgmental basis with high patient turnover. Sample size consists of 250 doctors, and questionnaire were adopted from two authors. Attitude of physicians towards DTCA and information inquired by the patient are two independent variables, whereas prescription generation by the physicians is dependent variable. SPSS was tool for data analysis.

Physicians have positive attitude towards DTCA and information provision to patient and consider it supplementary in overall health-care system. Advertising induces patients to visit physician and seek appropriate treatment and get induced to ask for further information.

Time and resources were limited.

First, it contributes towards knowledge, second, it shows the importance of DTCA and its impact on prescription generation and, third, it will help in devising drug advertising policy.

Highlights the issue are of not only misuse of drugs but also malpractice of drug prescription.

First, it explores the impact of the attitude of physicians along with the patients’ request on prescription generation behaviour. Second, it examines the impact of inquiring additional information about specific brand from the physician that might lead to the prescription generation. Finally, there is no study from the developing countries like Pakistan.