پژوهشنامه بیمه
سال سی و ششم شماره 1 (بهار 1400)

Achieving competitive advantage in insurance industry requires innovation and entrepreneurship. Opportunity identification is the essence and starting point of entrepreneurship. Opportunity evaluation is an essential element in the entrepreneurial process that facilitates the relationship between discovery and exploitation. The purpose of this study is to identify and prioritize the criteria for evaluating entrepreneurial opportunities in the insurance industry.

This research is applied in terms of purpose and descriptive-survey in terms of methodology. First, the criteria for evaluating the opportunity extracted from the research literature and were screened by experts using a researcher-made questionnaire and was analyzed by mean test via SPSS software. Then, the weight of the criteria was determined using the best-worst questionnaire via Lingo software. The first statistical population to identify and determine the criteria for evaluating entrepreneurial opportunities was 31 people from university professors and insurance industry experts. The second statistical population to determine the weight of the criteria set out in the previous step, was 8 managers of Parsian insurance company. The face and content validity of the questionnaires was assessed by university professors and industry experts. The reliability of the first questionnaire was confirmed with Cronbach's alpha of 0.841 and the second questionnaire with an incompatibility rate of 0.0274.

The most important criteria for evaluating entrepreneurial opportunities in the insurance industry are project resources, amount of resource investment, market needs, profit margin, level of competition, desirability and attractiveness of the opportunity, other potential opportunities and few barriers for entry.

Insurance companies can make the right decisions about how to take advantage of opportunities by emphasizing the criteria identified in this study, in order to gain a competitive advantage which leads to the growth and development of the country's economy.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of macro-political, economic and financial risk regimes as transfer variables based on the International Index of International Risk Guidance (ICRG) on the impact of per capita real Gross domestic product (GDP), life expectancy, unemployment rate, inflation rate, school enrolement (education) rate and urbanization degree on the life insurance demand.

This research is based on the theory of expected utility in the uncertainty of von Neumann and Morgenstern (1947) developed by Yary (1965) and then Lewis (1989). It will use the Panel Smooth Threshold Regression Model (PSTR) using three different logit transfer functions for the Middle East countries in the period of 1990-2017.

The threshold in the model with political, economic and financial risk was 73.72, 30.00 and 29.2, respectively. Also, the transfer speed between two regimes was estimated at 60.07, 0.3685, and 0.049 in all three models. The highest transmission speed was related to political risk, which led to the failure of the Logit Transmission curve and the three-dimensional procedure. The lowest transfer rate is related to financial risk, which led to a very low curvature of the logit transfer function.

The results of the three models estimation showed that real interest rate does not have a significant effect, which can be due to underdevelopment of financial market, interference in the money market and banking system, and the determination of interest rate in the selected countries. In a less risky rigim, life insurance demand sensebility is lower in inflation rate and life insurance is recognized as an asset with long-term returns. Per capita real GDP and life expectancy rate also have a threshold effect on all three different logit transfer functions. In a less risky political and financial regime, the life insurance demand is more sensitive to urbanization rate. School enrolement rate in a less risky rigim also has a greater impact on life insurance demand. 

This study aimed to find a properly theory to analyze the relationship between owner's responsibility and insurer in “Compulsory insurance to losses to third parties as a result of accidents caused by vehicles act” that the owner's responsibility is restricted merely to insure his motor vehicle and the Insurer is responsible to compensate any damages resulting from motor vehicle. Really the owner insurs the vehicle and there is no obligation to him but insurer take all other obligations and responsibilities in all cases refering to 2016 Act, even in some force majeure cases such as Acts of God or theft.

This study was descriptive-analytical and was done according to library resources with qualitative variables.

With regarding to the structure of “Compulsory insurance to losses to third parties as a result of accidents caused by vehicles act”, there is no reasonable relation between the responsibility of owner as insured and the insurer. As in some cases such as force majeure, damages by thief and damages which the owner or the driver has no role or fault in its occurrence, then, the owner or the driver has no liability for compensation, but the insurer shall compensate the damages upon regular basis. 

Thus, to find out the relationship between the liability of the owner and the insurer, the responsibility of owner shall not be considered as the basis of insurer's responsibility, but with reliance on the theories of "Distributive Justice" and "the relationship between the insurer's responsibility and the damages resulting from vehicle" the rule of act shall be accepted to compensate damages incurred by injured party even the owner has no responsibility for compensation, i.e., we can consider the liability of the insurer instead of the liability of the owner as the basis for compensation. This is because the legislator has sought to compensate the maximum damage and this goal is not achieved by basing the liability of the owner, but the main responsibility in these accidents is the insurer’s and this responsibility has been transferred ccording to the insurance contract and the 2016 Compulsory Insurance Act. Therefore, the basis of insurer's responsibility shall not be owner's responsibility, and there is no subordinate relationship between the insured and the insurer in the responsibility.

This study aims to identify and explain values of supportive cultural succession planning (SCSP) in the Iran insurance industry.

This study was a mixed method research with the descriptive-exploratory approach. The research population in the qualitative study were the academic staff and insurance experts and in quantitative study were employees of the insurers' central branches respectively. About 13 persons took part in the qualitative study and 284 persons participated in the quantitative study  using stratified random sampling method. Semistructured interviews were conducted with experts in the first phase of the study. A researcher made questionnaire including 43 questions was used in the second phase of the study. The questionnaire validity was tested using face validity, and its reliability was tested using the Cronbach's alpha (0.878). The qualitative data was analysed using content analysis method and the quantitative data was analysed using confirmatory factor analysis in the Amos 21.

The values of SCSP are consisted of organizational, professional and individual values. Moreover, among cultural values, professional and organizational values demonstrated the most ( i.e. loading factor of 0.715) and the least (i.e. loading factor of 0.505) support level for the model.

It is suggested that all organizational values ​​presented in this study be included in the value statement of the insurance industry and emphasis on adherence to them in insurance companies. In the field of professional values, it is suggested to use appropriate motivators to revive the mentioned values ​​among the employees and managers of insurance companies and apply it in organizational processes. In the case of individual values, it is also suggested that the individual values ​​mentioned in this study be considered as a basis for evaluating the performance of employees of insurance companies and compensation plans, rewards and incentives, etc. based on adherence to these values.

The main aim of this study was to propose a developed model to investigate factors affecting life insurance customers’ satisfaction in the Iranian insurance industry useing structural equations and stratified regression analysis.

This study was descriptive-analytical. The statistical population consists the customers of one insurance company, as a pilot insurance company in Iran. Cochran's formula was used to determine the sample size. Sampling was done from 355 customers of an insurance company who are in the stage of paying the insurance installments and the group who used the insurance benefits. Data were collected by a researcher-made questionnaire based on the SERVQUAL model electronically on the web and analyzed by structural equation modeling and stratified regression approach.

The findings of this study based on structural equation modeling show that in the five dimensions of the SERVQUAL model, the current situation, the level of customer satisfaction of the second group is significantly lower than the customers of the first group. This means that customers who have reached the stage of receiving life insurance benefits are less satisfied with life insurance services.

The hypothesis of customer satisfaction in all aspects of the model is rejected according to the results of this study. This shows that the level of life insurance customers’ satisfaction is not in a favorable situation. In stratified regression analysis, the factor of inflation and non-fulfillment of promises given to customers when selling insurance by the company were as the most important factors of customer dissatisfaction. The biggest gap was in the dimension of empathy in both groups. Therefore, it is necessary to have appropriate policies by the insurance company in the dimension of empathy and giving importance and compassion to customers and paying special attention to each customer in the future plans of insurance companies. Educating and persuading employees to deal properly with customers and not exaggerating the promises made to customers when selling life insurance can also be important and effective measures in providing customer satisfaction.

This study aimed to investigate the role of internal audit in comprehensive risk management (CRM) of Iranian insurance companies and to find out whether internal audit affects the comprehensive risk management in these companies.

This study is an applied study in terms of its objectives, a descriptive study in terms of research design, and a survey study in terms of data collection method. Data was collected using a questionnaire whose validity and reliability were confirmed through statistical tests. The collected data was analyzed using the Excel spreadsheet and SPSS software. The research population included about 350 senior managers working in the finance, internal audit, and risk divisions of insurance companies in 2019. The sample size was 138 based on the Cochran sample size formula.

The findings of this study indicated the normality of comprehensive risk management as a dependent variable and the significance of senior managers’ support, training, and organizational culture as control variables. Also, the technology was found to be insignificant in the model analysis.

The insights from this study suggest that from the perspective of professionals, internal auditing has a positive and significant effect on comprehensive risk management in insurance companies in Iran.