Author(s): Nurperihan TOSUN, Sumeyye ARSLAN KURTULUS
Drug companies are challenged by a number of issues such as global competition, rising costs, economic fluctuations, restrictions on patents and generic production. In such a highly competitive environment, marketing for drug companies has vital prospects, and companies aim to demonstrate and maintain effective sales strategies. To achieve this aim, they spend one-third of their income on promotional expenses. Pharmaceutical Representatives working for drug companies are an important means of promoting doctors' prescriptions. A variety of promotional strategies and activities are being implemented to increase sales in the pharmaceutical industry, and the success of these activities is assessed by the number of prescriptions made by the physicians.The purpose of this study is to determine the role of personal sales in physicians’ prescribing decisions in the health sector.The study sample consisted of 237 physicians who were actively working in Sivas Numune Hospital. 146 participants of this sample were recruited in the study by using simple randomised and systematic sampling method. The data were collected through a data collection form consisting of 40 questions developed by the relevant literature review and and analyzed using SPSS 21 package program. Factor analysis, correlation analysis and t-test were performed and frequencies were calculated and evaluated. The data were collected by the researcher herself who explained the purpose of the study to the participants who agreed to participate. 113 questionnaires were accepted as appropriate for the study after omitting the incorrect or unavailable ones. This corresponded to 77,39% of the target sample. The average age of the participants was 37,43, 52,2% were male. 53,1% were working for 5-10 years and 56,6% met drug representatives 6 times and more in a week. The physicians' weekly prescription number was 253,23. Physicians' correlation with weekly prescriptions is 0.236 and coefficient of expectation is 0.227 with weak positive correlation with positive coefficient. The physician found that the decision to prescribe was the effect of the promotional activities of the agencies.
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