Effects of Brand Equity on Prescribing Intention- A Comparison between Generic Drugs and Brand-name Drugs

• Main Authors: Ya-Yu Lee, 李雅瑜
• Other Authors: 林能白
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2012
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/68727749300624071157

碩士 === 國立臺灣大學 === 健康政策與管理研究所 === 100 === Background: In the healthcare system, information asymmetry could be caused by patients who have no medical expertise to decide the best treatment but physicians do. However, this information asymmetry situation may create potential factors to affect physicians managing the treatment strategy. Due to the global- budget system in Taiwan’s National Health Insurance limits hospital institutes’ financial growth, maximizing the reasonable pharmaceutical price gap is the way to control cost. In the pharmaceutical market, generic drugs have the higher price gap than brand-name drugs. This could affect physicians’ prescribing style because of cost consideration. In the past, researches which studied on prescribing intention of brand-name drugs or generic drugs were focusing on drug price much more than on the drug brands and their additional value. Therefore, this study focuses on the value of drug brands, researching the effects of brand equity on prescribing intention of brand-name drugs and generic drugs. Purpose: The purposes of this research include: (1) to discuss brand equity of brand-name drugs and generic drugs among physicians; (2) to discuss the influences of brand equity on prescribing intention; (3) to examine the moderating effect of seniority and ownership of hospitals. Method: We conducted an on-line cross-sectional survey on convenience sampling of 1331 member physicians of Taiwan Society of Internal Medicine. The survey was conducted during March 1 to May 14 in 2012. 94 valid data were collected, and response rate was 7%. Data were analyzed by factor analysis, correlation analysis, regression analysis and descriptive statistics with SPSS 18.0. Conclusion: The brand equity of brand-name drugs is higher than generic drugs and especially higher in the constructs of brand equity, perceived quality. The results proved that brand image and perceived quality of drugs would positively affect physician’s prescribing intention; however, the brand awareness would not. In addition, this study found that the ownership of hospitals showed the moderating effect between the brand equity of brand-name drugs and prescribing intention. Keyword: brand equity, brand image, perceived quality, brand awareness, prescribing intention