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This research aims to investigate the moderating role of an economic crisis in the consumer purchase intention toward generic drugs (GDs), and it uses a quantitative questionnaire survey to collect data through face-to-face interviews and robust statistical analyses. The results reinforce the idea that price is a fundamental element in building pharmaceutical product value. In situations of limited resources, the cost savings from generic drugs represent a strong appeal to consumers' experience of GDs and closes the perceived quality gap between the brand name and the generic products. This research highlights two main contributions, and its findings provides managerial and political implications.

AbastractDeciding to make online purchases can be risky and retailers have an opportunity to influence the consumer’s decision-making process. The aim of this article is to gauge the impact of different types of risks on trust and decision making with regard to online purchases. We conducted a survey with adaptations to three theoretical scales. To analyze the impact of risk on the variables of trust and decision making, a confirmatory factor analysis was performed, and to clarify the relationships between these constructs, a structural equation model was prepared. A qualitative (n = 13) and quantitative study were conducted with primary data (n = 328) collected by means of a structured questionnaire using a sample of a group of consumers who reside in the south of Brazil. The article makes four main contributions to the field: (i) it identifies the influence of three latent constructs that might affect online purchase behavior; (ii) it gauges the risks associated with the latent construct of trust and the adaptation of scales of perceived risk and decision making; (iii) it highlights the need to reassess the strategies adopted by companies that sell online to reduce risks and consequently increase trust in decision making; and (iv) it evaluates the demographic variables that have a significant moderating effect on the relationships of the constructs of trust and decision making during the purchase process.

Generic drugs were instituted in 1984 in the United States. Since that time, many studies have been conducted in several countries into consumer attitude and behavior when purchasing generic drugs. Understanding the factors that can influence attitude and purchasing intention in this segment has been a challenge. Thus, this paper aims to present a mapping of the literature on the attitude toward and intention to purchase generic drugs and capture insights that can help define and improve promotional strategies for the use of these products. To identify articles related to the theme, we selected the Web of Science, Science Direct, Scopus, Lilacs, Pubmed Central, Springer, and Embase databases time limited to June 2020, using the keywords “generic drug”, “purchase intention”, and “attitude”. The results indicate that this topic is relatively new, with publications in the leading journals in the area demonstrating its importance. Analysis revealed five strategic insights and showed that the research theme could be grouped into three clusters: (i) consumer attitude and behavior, (ii) perspective of patients and health professionals, and (iii) assessment of the risks associated with generic medications to determine which factors can influence purchase intention, providing decision makers with a broader view with regard to directing public policy strategies in healthcare.

The purpose of this paper is to compare the accuracy of demand forecasting between two classical linear forecasting models (Autoregressive and Integrated Moving Average -ARIMA and Holt-Winter) and two nonlinear forecasting models based on natural computing approaches (Wavelets Neural Networks - WNN and Takagi-Sugeno Fuzzy System - TS), all applied to the aggregated retail sales of three groups of perishable food products from 2005 to 2013. Moreover, this paper evaluates the impact of demand forecasting accuracy on the demand satisfaction rate and on the overall economic performance of retail business operations. The most accurate model, WNN, had a demand satisfaction rate of 98.27% for Group A, 98.83% for Group B and 98.80% for Group C. WNN estimated a loss of revenue of R$1329.14 million/year with a minimum loss of 166 tons/year, which means that the results of WNN are 37.67% more efficient than the TS, 57.49% higher than the ARIMA and 76.79% higher than HW. This paper presents three main contributions: (i) it examines a question not evaluated in the literature on demand forecasting based on natural computing approaches in the foodstuff retail segment that generates better practical results, (ii) it proposes that a single forecasting model could be applied to different product groups and serves the organization as a whole with a good relationship between the cost and the benefit of the process and (iii) like previous studies, it proves that demand forecasting plays an important role and can generate a competitive advantage for the organization to be incorporated into its strategy.

Design Science Research (DSR) purports to be a guide for research oriented to finding solutions to problems and designing artifacts. The aim of this study is to propose its use in the proposition of a management model by processes intended for science parks. Four science parks located in Paraná State, Brazil, were analyzed by conducting a comparative case study. Semi-structured interviews were held with the managers of the parks and non-participant observation was used to become more familiar with the environment to be studied. The results suggest that in order to define a management model by processes for science parks, the use of DSR is feasible. It is also important to follow its stages of construction, identifying the parks’ management activities, identifying and mapping business processes and the information systems that support them and proposing this integration in the organizational logic of Enterprise Architecture. This study contributes to the field by using DSR to define a management model by processes that expresses the relationships between business processes and information systems and how these should be articulated in the development of activities in the environments under study.

Enterprise Architecture - EA encompasses the core business processes, Information Technology infrastructure (IT), systems, and technologies, as well as the level of integration and standardization of data and processes. Companies that develop EA tend to migrate from local applications to systems that share infrastructure and data. In this context, the aim of this study is to identify how the SMEs –Small Enterprises from Southern Brazil are positioned in maturity levels of EA set out by their IT investments. The sample comprised 152 small businesses and the methodology employed included cluster analysis with average link between groups as linkage method and Euclidean distance as similarity measure. After the identification of eight main EA maturity stages, non-parametric tests such as Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney were employed to identify significant differences among the stages regarding their age and the number of employees. The results indicate that the average number of employees is low from stages zero to four, grows significantly in stage five and decreases moderately in the final stages, where the decrease from stage six to seven is also significant statistically. Moreover, the study suggests that small companies use less EA because they have fewer activities. On the other hand, larger companies use more EA because they are more complex and need more employees. However, after a certain point, the more they increase their EA level, the more efficient they become and the fewer employees are needed. Key words: Information technology, infrastructure investments, small and medium enterprise SME, maturity model.

The objective of this study is to investigate evidence of cointegration and causality between the market price of the live cattle in Brazil and the prices of the respective derivatives traded on BM&FBOVESPA – São Paulo, Brazil. The Johansen test was used to analyze evidence of cointegration between markets. The cointegration of these markets and their bidirectional causality signal to decision-makers in this agribusiness that the variations in BM&FBOVESPA futures contracts cause changes in the prices of the spot prices, as well as the spot prices cause to the futures contracts of B&MFBOVESPA.

This study analyzes factors that condition the formation of the building material of retailer cooperation networks and the results obtained with this actuation. This study was carried out of multiple descriptive and comparative cases, with transversal perspective of time. A non-disguised questionnaire was used, answered online by fifteen associated retailers and the manager of each one of the four formally incorporated networks acting on the field in the State of Parana, Brazil. On the basis of the answers provided by these two groups of managers, it was raised similarities and differences about the formation and gains obtained after entering these organizations. The study reveals that the main factors for the formation of the networks are: a) development of collective actions; b) pursuit of stability in the market; c) reduction of costs; and d) adaptation to the market conditions. The cooperated actions of big interest among the networks managers are those turned to the projection of a brand in the market. The main results obtained are: a) higher negotiation power with the suppliers; and b) exchange of experiences, importance of the business management. The study highlights the different dimensions for the constitution of the cooperation networks and that there are different perceptions regarding the obtained results for the cooperated actuation. Key-words: Retail, building material, cooperation network, formation, results.

The goal of the Assortment Planning (AP) is to specify an assortment that maximizes sales and profits which counterbalance the offer of products based on the decisions made about sales; it also increases the probability for consumers to find their own favorite product without increase in storage costs or risk of stock out. This work aims to investigate the strategic perception of retail owners and managers about assortment. Specifically, this study will analyze the impact of assortment, clients’ fidelity, level of service and profits on the vision of the retailer. It is an exploratory investigation of retailers’ perception about assortment management. The results of this research allow one to interfere with the inadequate knowledge of the interviewees about the theme, mainly the smaller stores. Generally, it was verified that the owners and managers evaluated assortment planning as a primordial strategic tool and considered important a system of information. Although recognizing the strategic importance of AP in the control of unproductive variety, the consumer of retail goods, mainly the small retailer uses the intuitive judgment related to the use of analytic methodology. Key words: Management by category; assortment planning; strategic perception.

In the management of innovation, intellectual property rights assume the primary role. In this sense, this paper aims to describe, with examples, the various strategies used by the pharmaceutical industry in the preservation of their legitimate rights of the intellectual property system. This is an exploratory study by using documentary research and longitudinal time. Even with the difference in laws between countries, the pharmaceutical anti-competitive practices gain more space in the global economy. For patents become political tools that foster innovation and diffusion of knowledge, it is suggested that revisions in the legislation, homogeneous international regulation and supervision of health authorities ensure quality of product and control of pharmaceutical marketing. This work also addresses political and social considerations on the subject while exploring some suggestions of ideal patent system.

Demand forecasting plays an increasingly relevant role within competitive and globalized marketplaces, in as much as operations planning and subsequent transition into a sustainable chain of supplies, is concerned. To this effect, the purpose of this study is to present the application of demand forecasting as a strategic sustainability tool at a Brazilian SME. Therefore, this is a descriptive, ex-post facto and cross-cut, sectional time case study, which employs qualitative and historical quantitative and direct observational data and that utilizes, as both indicators of the level of service offered to consumers and of opportunity costs the artificial neural networks model and fill-rates, for demand forecasting and response purposes. The study further established cause-effect relationships between prediction accuracy, demand responsiveness and process-resulting economic, environmental and social performances. Findings additionally concurred with both widely acknowledged sustainability concepts - NRBV (Natural-Resource-Based View) and 3BL (Triple Bottom Line) - by demonstrating that demand forecasts ensure the efficient use of resources, improvements in customer responsiveness and also mitigate supply chain stock out and overstock losses. Further to the mentioned economic benefit, demand forecasting additionally reduced the amount of waste that arises from retail product shelf-life expiration, improving the addressing of demand itself and of customer satisfaction, thus driving consequent environmental and social gains., Em um mundo competitivo e globalizado, a previsão de demanda assume um importante papel para o planejamento das operações e na sua transição para uma cadeia de suprimentos sustentável. Neste sentido, o objetivo do presente trabalho é descrever a previsão de demanda como uma ferramenta estratégica de sustentabilidade aplicável a uma PME brasileira. Para a previsão de demanda utilizou-se o modelo de redes neurais artificiais e o fill rate como indicador do nível de serviço oferecido ao consumidor, assim como do custo de oportunidade em resposta à demanda. O estudo também estabeleceu relação de causa-efeito entre a acuracidade da previsão, a responsividade da demanda e o desempenho econômico, ambiental e social decorrentes do processo. Em concordância com os conceitos da VBRN e do 3BL, o estudo demonstrou que a previsão de demanda proporciona eficiência na utilização dos recursos, melhorias na responsividade do cliente e evita “perdas” por stock out e por overstock na cadeia de suprimentos. Além deste ganho econômico, a previsão de demanda reduz a quantidade de resíduos gerados pelo vencimento de produtos no varejo, melhora o atendimento da demanda e a satisfação do consumidor, com consequentes ganhos ambientais e sociais. Trata-se de um estudo de caso descritivo, ex-post facto e de corte temporal seccional, com utilização de dados qualitativos, dados quantitativos históricos e observação direta.

Consumer-oriented sustainability follows a broader perspective that takes environmental, social and economic impacts of consumption into consideration. The main objective of this article is to broaden the sustainable consumption scale (SCS) of Ribeiro and Veiga (2011) by including communication as a variable that influences the development of sustainable consumer behaviour. For this study, data were collected from Brazilian consumers: the first with a sample of 231 respondents, and the second with 170. The results are presented on a 15-item scale with five dimensions: 1) recycling; 2) communication; 3) frugality; 4) ecological awareness; 5) resource save. This article contributes to the development of attitudinal aspects studies on consumer-oriented sustainability. The study provides a measuring instrument for organisations that seek to identify the profile of their consumers and identify a market niche in socially and environmentally responsible behaviour, and for future studies that use sustainable consumer attitudes as a variable of interest.

The general objective of this study is to investigate the erectile dysfunction pharmaceutical market over the past two decades (1990–2010) through patent data analysis. The study of the erectile dysfunction market allows the analysis of the technological trajectory of Viagra® in its several phases, since the launching of a radical innovation, going through the accommodation of incremental innovations and eventually the release of generic versions of that product. This is a descriptive, documentary, longitudinal research that analyses five research hypotheses. The results show how the erectile dysfunction market has developed over the years and the lessons that can be extracted regarding Intellectual Property Rights for countries, companies and governments, including political and social considerations about how much should a patent protect innovation.