Social and Behavioral Theories and Physician’s Prescription Behavior

Rizwan Raheem Ahmed, Dalia Streimikiene, Josef Abrhám, Justas Streimikis and Jolita Vveinhardt
Additional contact information
Rizwan Raheem Ahmed: Faculty of Management Sciences, Indus University, Gulshan-17, Karachi 75300, Pakistan
Dalia Streimikiene: Institute for sport science and innovation, Lithuanian Sports University, Sporto g. 6, 44221 Kaunas, Lithuania
Josef Abrhám: Department of Trade and Finance, Faculty of Economics and Management, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Praha-Suchdol, 16500 Prague, Czech Republic
Justas Streimikis: Lithuanian Institute of Agrarian Economics, A. Vivulskio g. 4A-13, 03220 Vilnius, Lithuania
Jolita Vveinhardt: Faculty of Economics and Management, Vytautas Magnus University, K. Donelaičio str. 58, 44248 Kaunas, Lithuania

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 8, 1-25

Abstract: The efficacy, safety, and cost of medication are the major concerns for a patient; thus, this research addresses factors that influence the physician’s prescription behavior. The objective of the undertaken study is the empirical testing of a novel conceptual model that was newly developed by the previous literature, which is based on behavioral and social theories. The considered model explains the association between marketing efforts, pharmacist factors, patient characteristics, and the physician’s decision to prescribe a drug. This unique model also includes the influence of cost and benefit ratio, drug characteristics, physician’s persistence, and trustworthiness as moderating variables. This model is useful for analyzing the prospects of marketing. We have collected 984 physicians’ responses from the urban centers of Pakistan through a structured questionnaire. We have used Structural equation modelling (SEM) based multivariate techniques such as exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, and conditional process modelling to explore the direct and indirect relationship amongst the exogenous, moderating, and endogenous variables. The findings of the study demonstrated that marketing efforts, patient’s characteristics, and pharmacist factors have a positive and significant influence on the physician’s decision to prescribe medicines. The moderation analysis exhibited the significant effect of drug characteristics, cost–benefit ratio, physician’s persistence, and trustworthiness in a relationship between exogenous and endogenous variables. The results of the undertaken study are helpful for the marketers of the pharmaceutical industry to save wasteful marketing expenditures for the product portfolios, and measured variables may help to make meaningful marketing strategies for the physician’s prescription that provide optimum Returns on Investment (ROI) of their investments.

Keywords: social and behavioral theories; physician’s prescription behavior; marketing efforts; patient and drug characteristics; SEM-based multivariate approach; physician’s persistence; pharmaceutical industry (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:8:p:3379-:d:348472

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