TY - JOUR
T1 - Ethical Issues in Pharmaceutical Marketing
T2 - A Systematic Review and Future Research Agenda
AU - Limbu, Yam B.
AU - Huhmann, Bruce A.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.
PY - 2022
Y1 - 2022
N2 - This systematic review of cross-disciplinary peer-reviewed quantitative research into pharmaceutical marketing ethical issues from 1990 to 2021 reveals a focus on direct-to-consumer advertising and physician-directed promotion. This review documents inconsistent findings across studies due to discrepancies and limitations in research designs, study populations, sampling procedures, and analytical approaches as well as discipline-specific biases and normative ethical ideologies. We present a comprehensive taxonomy of ethical issues from the systematic review, additional scholarly and industry publications, and expert interviews. We recommend that future research test causal inferences, use rigorous research designs, explore under-researched topics, resolve conflicting findings, and incorporate ethical theories.
AB - This systematic review of cross-disciplinary peer-reviewed quantitative research into pharmaceutical marketing ethical issues from 1990 to 2021 reveals a focus on direct-to-consumer advertising and physician-directed promotion. This review documents inconsistent findings across studies due to discrepancies and limitations in research designs, study populations, sampling procedures, and analytical approaches as well as discipline-specific biases and normative ethical ideologies. We present a comprehensive taxonomy of ethical issues from the systematic review, additional scholarly and industry publications, and expert interviews. We recommend that future research test causal inferences, use rigorous research designs, explore under-researched topics, resolve conflicting findings, and incorporate ethical theories.
KW - Pharmaceutical and medical ethics
KW - direct-to-consumer advertising
KW - ethical issues with pharmaceutical sales representatives
KW - marketing mix
KW - physician-directed promotions
KW - systematic review
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85115234314&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/08911762.2021.1949084
DO - 10.1080/08911762.2021.1949084
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85115234314
SN - 0891-1762
VL - 35
SP - 1
EP - 20
JO - Journal of Global Marketing
JF - Journal of Global Marketing
IS - 1
ER -