Regulating drug promotion: The UK experience

This article examines the nature of control over the promotional activities of the pharmaceutical industry in the UK. It focuses on the variety of methods which companies use to promote their products to the medical profession and considers the special problems this raises, for the government who seeks to secure the supply of safe products at reasonable prices, for the doctor who has often little but the company's own promotional literature to guide him/her in selecting a new drug, and for the consumer/patient who is supplied with a minimum of information about the product and who is consequently dependent on the doctor's judgment. It assesses the amount of money currently expended by the industry on promotional material and examines the adequacy and efficacy of the complex interaction of the current statutory, non-statutory and self-regulatory controls.

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Englische Erfahrungen mit der Regulierung von Arzneimittelwerbung

Zusammenfassung Der Beitrag beschäftigt sich mit der Kontrolle der verkaufsfördernden Strategien der englischen pharmazeutischen Industrie und geht auf die verschiedenen offenen und verdeckten Methoden ein, den Verkauf der Produkte bei der Ärzteschaft zu fördern. Geprüft wird, ob die bestehenden Rahmenkontrollen sicherstellen können, daß die Ärzte nicht von der Menge und dem Inhalt des Werbematerials, das sie erhalten, irregeführt werden. Der Beitrag überprüft die existierenden nicht gesetzlichen Regelungen zur Kontrolle der Werbeausgaben und kommt zu dem Ergebnis, daß sie zu breit und allgemein ausgelegt sind, um ein bestimmtes Unternehmen, das in den Markt eindringen möchte, zu kontrollieren. Die von der Industrie selbst erarbeiteten Verhaltensrichtlinien bieten kaum zusätzliche Möglichkeiten, übertriebene Werbung zu beschränken.Weiterhin untersucht der Beitrag die laufenden Kontrollen der Qualität und des Inhalts des Werbematerials. Bei der Betrachtung der Wechselwirkungen zwischen den Vorschriften des Arzneimittelgesetzes von 1968 einerseits und den Selbstbeschränkungen der Verhaltensrichtlinien der Industrie andererseits kommt der Beitrag zu dem Schluß, daß es nicht nur erhebliche Lücken im Wirkungsbereich der Kontrollen gibt, sondern daß auch die Mechanismen für ihre Durchführung bei weitem nicht befriedigend sind. Abschließend werden einige Reformvorschläge gemacht.

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Leigh Hancher lectures in European and Commerical Law in the School of Law at the University of Warwick, Coventry, CV4 7AL, U.K. She would like to thank Dr. Joe Collier of St. George's Hospital, London, for his kind help in the preparation of this article. The research was supported by a generous grant from the Economic and Social Science Research Committee.     

Ethical decision making in the medical profession: An application of the theory of planned behavior

The present study applied Ajzen's (1985) theory of planned behavior to the explanation of ethical decision making. Nurses in three hospitals were provided with scenarios that depicted inadequate patient care and asked if they would report health professionals responsible for the situation. Study results suggest that the theory of planned behavior can explain a significant amount of variation in the intent to report a colleague. Attitude toward performing the behavior explained a large portion of the variance; subjective norms explained a moderate amount of the variance; and, perceived behavioral control added little to the explanation of variance. Implications for research and practice are discussed. Donna M. Randall is an Associate Professor in Management and Systems at Washington State University. Her research interests include organizational commitment, media coverage of elite crime, and ethical issues in management. Her publications have appeared in such journals as Decision Sciences, Academy of Management Review, and Journal of Business Ethics. Annetta M. Gibson is a doctoral student in the Department of Accounting and Business Law at Washington State University and a CPA. Her research interests lie in the area of behavioral accounting and ethical issues in auditing, accounting, and management. She has published in the Journal of Business Ethics.     

Incorporating choice dynamics in models of consumer behavior

This paper presents a framework for organizing and discussing factors influencing consumer choice dynamics, how these factors may be incorporated into models of buyer behavior and problems that may arise in estimating such models. The paper identifies research issues and delineates possible approaches. Proceedings of Session on Choice Dynamics at the Banff Symposium on Consumer Decision-Making and Choice Behavior. All authors share equally in content and remaining errors.     

The Affordable Care Act and Its Potential to Improve the Health of African-American Women

A complex set of historical and contemporary factors (such as racism, poverty and segregation) shape the life experiences, and health outcomes of African-American women. Their place in society and literally the places where they live both determine their health. This article considers whether the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (P.L. 111–148), as amended, signed into law by President Obama on March 30, 2010, can become a viable tool to help address the health needs of African-American women.     

Games Students Play: Incorporating the Prisoner's Dilemma in Teaching Business Ethics

The so-called "Prisoner's Dilemma" is often referred to in business ethics, but probably not well understood. This article has three parts: (1) I claim that models derived from game theory are significant in the field for discussions of prudential ethics and the practical decisions managers make; (2) I discuss using them as a practical pedagogical exercise and some of the lessons generated; (3) more speculatively, I suggest that they are useful in discussions of corporate personhood.     

Block grant: The story of a failure

The Government's proposals for the reform of local government finance should primarily be evaluated in terms of their impact on the efficiency and accountability of local budget‐making. Criticisms of their distributional implications are largely beside the point.     

Evaluation of inventory management: Efficiency can affect success

In many manufacturing companies, top management analyzes inventories only when financial trouble is at hand. The average amount of money committed to inventories is about three times the amount held in cash. It is rare that a member of top management gives the sustained attention to inventories that he gives to the company's cash position. A troubled company can take important steps in retrenching by evaluating its inventory management. However, this evaluation can be a part of the continuing analysis of the company's operations, in most cases as an outgrowth of auditing services. The resulting efficiencies can have a favorable effect on the company's success and growth—especially if money formerly tied up in inventories is freed for investment in other resources.     

A Tale of Two Models: Comparing structuralist and neoclassical computable general equilibrium models for South Africa

This paper compares two working models of the South African economy, an orthodox, neoclassical computable general equilibrium model in which savings drive investment, and a more structuralist, eclectic, model for which there is an independent investment function. Both models are calibrated to the same social accounting matrix. Comparative statics of simplified prototype models are presented and identical simulations with the corresponding applied versions are compared. It is seen that the neoclassical model fully supports the principles of the 'Washington Consensus' while the structuralist model requires a far more heterodox set of policies to avoid slow growth or high inflation.     

Message repetition,experience and motivation

A recently proposed model describing four levels of involvement is used to predict the likely effects of repetition on subjects with high or low levels of prior experience and motivation. The predicted hypotheses are tested in an experiment, and the results are discussed in terms of their implication to communication strategy and to the recently proposed levels of involvement model.