Motivated by the medical literature findings that physicians are inertial, we seek to understand (1) whether physicians exhibit structural persistence in drug choice (structural persistence occurs when the drug chosen for a patient depends structurally on the drug previously prescribed by the physician to other patients) and (2) whether persistence, if present, is a physician-specific characteristic or a physician state that can change over time. We further explore the role of promotional tools on persistence and drug choice, and we investigate whether physicians who exhibit persistence respond differently to three forms of sales promotion: one-to-one meetings (detailing), out-of-office meetings, and symposium meetings. Our results show significant levels of physician persistence in drug choice. We find that persistence is mostly a cross-sectional physician feature. Nonpersistent physicians appear to be responsive to detailing and symposium meetings, whereas persistent physicians seem to be responsive only to symposium meetings. Out-of-office meetings, such as golf or lunch, have no effect on physicians' drug choice. We also find that (1) older physicians and those who work in smaller practices are more likely to be persistent and (2) physicians who are more willing to receive sales force representatives have a lower likelihood of being persistent. Finally, we discuss implications for public policy from our rich set of results.decision analysis, physician prescription behavior, health care, econometrics

This study compares the reactions towards shock advertising in for‐profit (FP) and not‐for‐profit (NFP) organizations. Although the use of shocking advertisements is a growing phenomenon, the findings regarding the effectiveness of such advertisements remain mixed. Moreover, there is little consideration of the use of these tactics in different organizational contexts and the effect on the consumer. A qualitative methodology was adopted and included the use of focus groups to explore the attitudes and emotional reactions of a range of individuals. The shocking images from both the NFP and FP organizations were deemed successful at capturing the audience's attention. Some images were more ‘shocking’ than others, whereas some were more effective at drawing attention to the product or the cause. Importantly, the use of shock advertising was perceived to be justifiable in the NFP sector but much less so in the FP sector. Reactions were somewhat influenced by both religion and gender; however, it was apparent that this sample were inherently more accepting of shock advertising than expected. Despite the apparent immunity of today's youth to shock tactics, this study found that there are still themes that are considered inappropriate in FP and NFP sectors; these include the use of religious taboos or morally offensive images. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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