Dramatic structural changes are taking place within the rapidly growing Web advertising sector; the most notable being the rise to prominence of Sponsored Search Advertising (SSA) which developed because of the need to find solutions to the increased market demand for more consumer-oriented and targeted advertising and non-intrusive Web Advertising format (Weidlich, 2002). Moreover, SSA offered...

We consider a strategic online social network that controls information flows between agents in a social learning setting. Agents on the network select among products of competing firms of unknown quality. The network sells advertising to firms. We consider display advertising, which is standard firm-to-consumer advertising, and social advertising, in which agents who purchased that firm’s prod...

Genetic research on addiction liability and pharmacogenetic research on treatments for addiction have identified some genetic variants associated with disease risk and treatment. Genetic testing for addiction liability and treatment response has not been used widely in clinical practice because most of the genes identified only modestly predict addiction risk or treatment response. However, man...

A two-stage approach is employed in order to examine the influencing factors of consumer behaviors in the context of mobile advertising. The first stage of the study evaluates the correlation relationship of consumer motives for receiving mobile advertising and their attitudes toward mobile advertising. It also investigates the relationship between consumer intentions for receiving advertisemen...

There is little rationale for direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription drugs. Most new drugs offer little if any therapeutic advantage over existing products. Direct-to-consumer advertisements frequently downplay safety information. Physicians are highly ambivalent about prescribing advertised drugs requested by patients. There is no evidence that directto-consumer advertising results in ...

Direct-to-consumer (DTC) prescription drug advertisements for HIV anti-retrovirals are controversial and have been criticized in the past for including deceptive images and underplaying HIV drug limitations. We sought to describe the state of recent DTC ads for HIV antiretrovirals in popular magazines by performing a content analysis of all complete DTC ads for antiretroviral medications appear...

Direct-to-consumer (DTC) genetic testing refers to testing sold directly to consumers via the Internet, television, or other marketing venues without involving health care professionals. As the recent Supreme Court ruling eliminated the patentability of human genes, this rapidly evolving segment in the laboratory testing industry is starting to attract increasing scrutiny by government, scienti...

BACKGROUND Influenza-related mortality predominately and disproportionately impacts the elderly. Rates of annual influenza vaccination among the elderly are approximately 65%, far below the Healthy People 2010 target of 90%. We estimated the cost-effectiveness of a 10-year federal program to promote influenza vaccine, intended to increase vaccination rates among persons > or = 65 years old. M...

In this study, we apply an econometric methodology to empirically examine the potential roles of a host of key factors on the part of the consumer in affecting the level of effectiveness (persuasiveness) of celebrity endorsement in advertising. Based on first-hand data obtained from surveys and using an econometric approach, we design and implement our empirical analysis. The analysis leads to ...