Determinants of physicians' purchase intention for innovative services: Integrating professional characteristics with technology acceptance model and theory of planned behaviour

© 2015 Imperial College Press. This paper seeks to explore the factors that influence physicians' purchase intention for supplementary professional services that have been recently introduced to the market. For that reason, a model has been developed and empirically tested using data collected from 100 physicians regarding an innovative e-detailing service. Results show that physicians' purchase intention is significantly influenced by five factors. Three of them derive from the integration of Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) with the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB), i.e., perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use and professional image. The rest, namely work experience, working status and innovativeness, refer to physicians' professional characteristics. Work experience and innovativeness were found to have a significant effect on physicians' perceptions of the innovative service, whereas, physicians' current working status was not found to have significant influence on either their perceptions of the innovative service or their purchase intention

O endosso por celebridade e a gestão da imagem da marca: evidências empíricas a partir do estudo da marca Ipanema Gisele Bündchen

Um conceito fundamental para a compreensão do papel desempenhado pelas marcas nas sociedades é o de posicionamento. De acordo com Ries e Trout (1986), o enfoque essencial do posicionamento não está em criar algo novo ou diferente, e sim em reconhecer o que está dentro da mente dos consumidores e posicionar o produto valendo-se das conexões existentes. Uma abordagem que tem despertado interesse é o paradigma do arquétipo, que postula a exist��ncia do inconsciente coletivo, uma estrutura da psiqué que conteria as "imagens coletivas" comuns ao gênero humano que representam uma tendência inata para perceber a realidade de uma determinada forma. Neste sentido, pesquisadores propõem que a utilização de celebridades endossantes é uma forma poderosa de transferir significados simbólicos para as marcas. Assim sendo, este estudo integra os conceitos da Teoria dos Arquétipos de Jung e de posicionamento de marca, tendo como objetivo compreender como uma empresa realiza o processo de transferência do significado simbólico proveniente de uma celebridade endossante para a imagem de uma marca, dotando-as dos elementos arquetípicos que possibilitem a conexão entre a imagem da marca e as inclinações psicológicas dos consumidores, resultando em um posicionamento de marca efetivo. Para tanto, foi desenvolvida uma pesquisa exploratória relacionada às estratégias de posicionamento adotadas para a marca Ipanema Gisele Bündchen, por meio da qual foi possível compreender de que forma ocorre a transferência do significado simbólico de uma celebridade para a imagem da marca, resultando em considerações teóricas e empíricas capazes de oferecer suporte aos processos estratégicos e gerenciais de posicionamento de marca.A key concept for understanding the role of brands in societies is the positioning. According to Ries and Trout (1986), the focus of the position is not essential in creating something new or different, but to recognize what's inside the mind of consumers and positioning the product taking advantage of existing connections. One approach that has attracted attention is the paradigm of the archetype, which postulates the existence of the collective unconscious, a structure of the psyche that would contain the "collective images" common to mankind that represents an innate tendency to perceive reality in a certain way. In this sense, researchers suggest that the use of celebrity endorsers is a powerful way to transfer symbolic meanings for brands. Thus, this study integrates the concepts of the Theory of Archetypes of Jung and brand positioning aiming to understand how a company performs the transfer process of the symbolic meaning from a celebrity endorser for the brand image, providing them with the archetypal elements that enable the connection between the brand image and psychological consumers' inclinations, resulting in an effective brand positioning. For this purpose, was developed an exploratory research related to the strategies adopted for positioning the brand Ipanema Gisele Bündchen, whereby it was possible to understand how occurs the transfer of the symbolic meaning related to a celebrity for the brand image, resulting in theoretical and empirical considerations that could support the strategic and managerial processes of brand positioning