Global pharmaceutical supply-chain risk mitigation has become an important issue in the corporate boardroom.This article reports on the empirical findings of the quantification of risks that decision makers consider most important when deciding on a risk portfolio to mitigate and the manner in which risks are prioritized according to their importance. The empirical findings suggest that decision makers attached great importance to counterfeit, Food and Drugs Board, and exchange-rate fluctuations. With respect to risk-mitigation strategies, risk reduction is considered most important, followed by risk avoidance. Dynamic sensitivity analysis with respect to a change (increase) in the Food and Drugs Board did not result in any change in the ranking of risk policy options, while a change (increase) in counterfeit resulted in a change in the ranking between risk reduction and risk avoidance. Risk avoidance ranked number one, followed by risk reduction. Implications distilled from this article are far-reaching for the Ghanaian pharmaceutical firms' managers.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to understand marketing–sales–service (M-S-S) interface from the point of how social media marketing (SMM) platforms are prioritized and associated business-to-business (B2B) sales process influence. This study also seeks to understand whether effective triadic alignment is achieved between marketing, sales and service. Design/methodology/approach This study combines literature review and the analytical hierarchy process model. In total, 30 M-S-S managers of a multinational electronics firm situated in Africa and the Middle East participated in this study. The authors collected data from M-S-S managers during training sessions on marketing, sales, service alignment and SMM role in sales process. Findings In their drive for customer orientation and improved organizational performance, marketing, sales and service managers view understanding the customer as the most important sales process attribute. Considered second most significant sales process attribute is needs discovery, whereas approaching the customer is ranked the least important. From the ratings of sales process attributes evaluation and rankings of SMM platform alternatives, the results show a significant hierarchical influence of Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter on sales process. The results also show an enabling influence of SMM activity on M-S-S interface alignment. Research limitations/implications This study has a twofold limitation. First, it explored only one major B2B firm in the electronics industry. Second, only the African and Middle East settings are considered in this study. These limitations could be addressed in future research. Practical implications This paper provides practical insights into how M-S-S managers may leverage social media to enhance customer orientation and boost organizational performance. The use of SMM can help M-S-S managers of the focal firm to predict purchase behavior of customers more accurately and as a result effectively manage and improve sales performance. In that drive of using SMM-based competitive intelligence to deliver superior customer experience and enhance sales performance, B2B marketing-oriented firms can also leverage the interdependence (information sharing and involvement) in the M-S-S interface during the SMM activity to enhance triadic alignment. Originality/value This study contributes to the literature by developing a framework for modeling SMM influence on M-S-S and B2B sales process to deliver superior customer experience and drive business performance.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to identify key social medial channels which pharmaceutical firms need to consider when desiring to understand consumer behavior, build, maintain and proactively manage relationships. Also, it proposes the application of analytic hierarchy process (AHP) sensitivity analysis algorithm to test the stability or robustness of the priority ranking. Specifically, this paper leverages performance sensitivity analysis to evaluate how small changes (perturbation) in the major objectives of the pharmaceutical relationship marketing (PRM) tactics within the social media environment will influence the ranking of the alternative course of actions. Design/methodology/approach This paper used AHP-based questionnaire survey to evaluate the relative importance of factors accounting for PRM and the impact of social media channels. The major objectives and the alternative strategies used were from literature reviewed. Interviews with senior managers were insightful and helpful in the wording, content and format of the questionnaire. Findings Customer engagement is the most important PRM tactic, followed by communication and trust. The performance sensitivity analysis carried out on the PRM tactics showed that the ranking associated with social media channel options remained robust or insensitive to small perturbations. Research limitations/implications The data procured for this paper were based on one focal pharmaceutical firm. Convincing the same to grant an interview and late responding to the questionnaire was a great challenge. Practical implications Social media impact on pharmaceutical marketing relationship is important for pharmaceutical marketers. PRM bodes well with the social media environment. Pharmaceutical industry can build and maintain relationships with consumers through social media. Firms that leverage social media to enhance their PRM tactics will be viewed favorably in terms of trust, transparency, openness and honesty. The results provide pharmaceutical marketing managers with insightful and valuable information with respect to the role or social media impact on the PRM. The AHP model, objectives and their relative importance provide valuable information for managers on how to monitor the values that matters to customers the most. Originality/value This paper is one of the very few on the PRM and perhaps the first that examines social impact leveraging the AHP model. In addition, this paper contributes to the relationship marketing literature by leveraging a multi-criteria decision-making algorithm to prioritize the most important factors accounting for the PRM strategies.

The food industry plays a signifi cant role in food supply. However, it is increasingly facing a signifi cant number of risks to tackle. This article provides insight into sources and quantifi cation of risk, which can restrict food operations and supply chain performance. Certainly, risks imposed by today ' s constantly changing global environment makes it imperative for food and agribusiness fi rms to develop purposeful proactive and predictive risk management for their global supply chains. We proposed the analytic hierarchy process ( AHP ) model to analyze sources of risks attached to the focal fi rm ' s global food operations and supply chain. The identifi ed risks were from a review of relevant literature, expert opinions from the focal fi rm supply chain C-level executive, and consultants in the food industry. We grouped the identifi ed risks into seven categories and discussed the risk mitigation strategies. We validated the proposed model using a case study involving a focal food and agribusiness fi rm with global presence.

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