An empirical investigation of consumers' procurement of pharmaceutical products via online retail channels

Abstract

The procurement of pharmaceuticals from electronic channels is drawing widespread attention from marketing decision makers, public policymakers, and the popular media. The focus on online retail channels for pharmaceuticals may be, in part, attributable to the potential risks and safety issues that underlie consumers' selfinitiated pharmaceutical acquisition and consumption decisions. Clearly, there exist an unprecedented number of consumers employing this nontraditional channel for procuring both over-the-counter (OTC) and prescription pharmaceuticals in the U.S. This study explores the potential impact of consumers' cognitive characteristics on their decision making as it relates to procuring pharmaceutical products via online retail channels. The results of the study indicate that both powerful others health locus of control and objectivism determine the propensity to procure pharmaceuticals via electronic retail channels. Moreover, health value is identified as a portentous moderator of the relationship between consumers' health locus of control, objectivism, and pharmaceuticals procurement via electronic retail channels. The implications of the findings and recommendations for future research are offered, as well.

Quality of Online Pharmacies and Websites Selling Prescription Drugs: A Systematic Review

“…The findings were published between 2003 [108] and 2010 [105-107,109-112]. Seven studies investigated the general population [12,75,106,108,109,113,114], while the remainder were about specific groups, described in Table 3 [64,105,107,109,111,112,115,116]. …”

“…Rajamma and Pelton [114] explored the potential impact of consumers’ cognitive characteristics on their decision making as it relates to procuring pharmaceutical products via online retail channels. They sent 350 consumers a self-administered electronic questionnaire.…”

Flipping the script: Consumers’ propensity for self-medication

“…The ways in which consumer control drives behaviors have received extensive research attention (Ajzen, 2002;Rajamma & Pelton, 2009, 2010Venkatesh, 2000). Social cognitive theory (Bandura, 1986) suggests that the notion of self-control is part of a consumer's selfregulation which acts as an internal control mechanism.…”

“…In this study, health locus of control (internal, powerful others and chance) and self-efficacy are conceived as underlying consumers' need for control (Bandura, 1977(Bandura, , 1986Rajamma & Pelton, 2009, 2010Wallston et al, 1978). This is particularly relevant for the health-care market because most patients do not feel that they have control over their health-care choices.…”

“…From the patients' perspective, there is an increase in consumers' willingness to take care of themselves and maintain self-confidence in their own health-care decisions, reducing dependency on physicians (Betts et al, 2020). As a result, consumer involvement vis-à-vis selfmedication and over-the-counter drug usage is rising at the highest rate in U.S. history (Lovelace, 2019;NBH, n.d.;Rajamma & Pelton, 2009, 2010.…”