Document Type : Original Research Paper

Authors

• Shabnam Refoua ¹
• Hosseinali Bakhtiar Nasrabadi ²

¹ Ph.D. in Knowledge and Information Science, Director of the Library, Academic Documents, and Publications Department at Insurance Research Center, Tehran, Iran.

² Administrative and Regulatory Compliance Advisor to the CEO, Asia Insurance Company, Tehran, Iran.

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Due to the data‑driven and knowledge‑based nature of insurance industry, the development of this industry depends on enhancing its absorptive capacity, i.e., the ability to acquire, analyze, combine, and apply knowledge. Despite the importance of knowledge absorption for improving competitiveness and service quality in insurance, systematic and integrated efforts to strengthen absorptive capacity have been neglected. Therefore, the objective of this research is to identify and explain the antecedents and consequences of absorptive capacity in the Iranian insurance industry.

METHODS: The present study adopted qualitative research design and employed the thematic analysis approach proposed by Braun and Clarke (2006) as its primary analytical strategy. This method was selected due to its flexibility and suitability for systematically capturing latent patterns of meaning within complex and context‑dependent phenomena such as knowledge absorptive capacity in a highly regulated service industry. Data were collected through an in‑depth analysis of specialized documents and authoritative texts, including policy documents, regulatory guidelines, industry reports, academic publications, and written accounts reflecting managerial experiences, organizational structures, and knowledge‑related transformations within the Iranian insurance industry. The analytical process followed the six recursive phases of thematic analysis: familiarization with the data, generation of initial codes, searching for themes, reviewing themes, defining and naming themes, and producing the final analytical narrative. To strengthen analytical rigor, coding was conducted iteratively and comparatively, allowing for continuous refinement of themes across data sources. Data interpretation was guided by a paradigmatic analytical framework incorporating causal conditions, contextual factors, intervening conditions, and consequences. Within this framework, basic themes were first identified and subsequently aggregated into organizing themes and higher‑order global themes, ensuring conceptual coherence and theoretical depth. To enhance analytical richness and reinforce interpretive credibility, the emergent findings were systematically compared with both domestic and international studies on absorptive capacity, organizational learning, and knowledge management. This comparative analysis enabled the identification of convergences and divergences between the Iranian insurance context and dominant theoretical models, thereby strengthening the explanatory power and contextual sensitivity of the findings. All in all, this methodological approach ensured transparency in the analytical process and contributed to the robustness, transferability, and theoretical contribution of the study.

FINDINGS: The findings of this study demonstrate that absorptive capacity in the Iranian insurance industry, while conceptually consistent with classical and contemporary frameworks in the international literature, differs markedly in its formation, trajectory of development, and pattern of outcomes. Rather than emerging as a proactive and deliberately cultivated strategic capability, absorptive capacity in this context is predominantly reactive, activated by environmental turbulence, intensified competition, technological disruption, and persistent knowledge gaps. Consequently, knowledge-related initiatives tend to be fragmented, short-term, and heavily dependent on managerial attitudes and stability, preventing absorptive capacity from maturing into an institutionalized and sustainable organizational capability. From a contextual and institutional perspective, the study reveals that managerial perceptions of knowledge, short managerial tenures, weak merit-based systems, and the absence of organizational memory significantly constrain the development of absorptive capacity. These challenges are reinforced by regulatory passivity and the lack of explicit knowledge-oriented requirements within the supervisory framework governing the insurance industry. This configuration contrasts sharply with the dominant findings in global literature, which emphasizes the facilitative role of supportive institutional environments in enhancing organizational learning and innovation. In the Iranian insurance context, therefore, institutional arrangements function less as enablers and more as structural inhibitors of systematic knowledge absorption. At the operational and process level, deficiencies in data infrastructure, limited access to reliable information, weak knowledge-sharing mechanisms, and cultural resistance to change further hinder the progression of absorptive capacity across its acquisition, assimilation, transformation, and exploitation phases. As a result, knowledge absorption frequently remains confined to individual awareness or isolated initiatives, failing to translate into coordinated organizational action and long-term capability development. Unlike evidence from technology-intensive industries, digitalization in this setting has not yet assumed a catalytic role in strengthening absorptive capacity, but instead highlights a critical missing link between data availability and knowledge utilization. With respect to outcomes, the findings indicate that the effects of absorptive capacity in the Iranian insurance industry materialize primarily through incremental and process-based improvements rather than radical technological innovations. These outcomes include enhanced underwriting and claims processes, improved managerial decision-making quality, greater cognitive and strategic agility, strengthened process-driven competitive advantage, and improved customer experience. This pattern suggests that, within highly regulated service industries such as insurance, absorptive capacity serves less as a driver of rapid technological breakthroughs and more as a foundational mechanism for continuous learning, organizational resilience, and gradual value creation. Accordingly, the direct transfer of dominant global theoretical models to such contexts without sufficient attention to institutional and cultural contingencies may yield incomplete or misleading conclusions.

CONCLUSION: The findings of the study indicate that although absorptive capacity in the Iranian insurance industry is conceptually aligned with the international literature, its mode of realization and the nature of its outcomes are gradual, processual, and highly dependent on the institutional and regulatory context. These results highlight that the straightforward generalization of dominant absorptive capacity models to regulated service industries may be misleading. In insurance industry, the development of absorptive capacity relies less on rapid technological innovation and more on strengthening organizational learning, managerial coherence, and a systematic knowledge-oriented perspective.

Keywords

• Antecedents of Knowledge Absorptive Capacity
• Consequences of Knowledge Absorptive Capacity
• Insurance Industry
• Thematic Analysis

Main Subjects

• New Insurance Technologies