Perceived risk and trust in purchase intention towards generic drugs in Malaysia

Abstract

This study aims to examine factors that influence purchase intention towards generic drugs in Malaysia. We proposed that perceived risk and trust are the determinants of purchase intention towards generic medicines. Self-administered questionnaires were distributed using both offline and online method. 283 responses were collected and analysed using SmartPLS version 3. The results showed that all six dimensions of perceived risk has significant influence on the intention to purchase generic drugs. Performance risk has the highest contribution towards perceived risk. Besides, the findings revealed that trust does not influence perceived risk but influence purchase intention. The results suggested that the mediation effect of perceived risk between trust and purchase intention is not significant. The findings provide significant implications to government, policy makers, pharmaceutical manufacturers and marketers in their quests to reduce the escalating pharmaceutical costs and to increase generic substitution rate.