Original Research Paper
Marketing and Sales
N. Hosseini; S.R. Hasani
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Insurance industry as one of the infrastructures of mental security and peace of society can play an important role in social development. In order to increase the penetration rate of insurance among people and then develop a country's insurance industry, also the prosperity ...
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BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Insurance industry as one of the infrastructures of mental security and peace of society can play an important role in social development. In order to increase the penetration rate of insurance among people and then develop a country's insurance industry, also the prosperity of its beneficial economic cycle, the need for an insurance industry with a good organizational reputation at the macro-national level is felt. The purpose of this article is to design an organizational reputation model for the insurance industry while emphasizing the identification and ranking of factors influencing organizational reputation. METHODS: The present research method is a mixed qualitative and quantitative one. In the qualitative research section, the Grounded Theory method is used to present conceptual model. Statistical sample of this section includes 24 experts and specialists from insurance industry. In the qualitative section, Snowball Sampling method is applied, semi-structured interview method is used to collect data and 3-step open, axial and selective coding process is used to analyze data . The result of this section is to present a paradigm model and identify the factors affecting the organizational reputation of the insurance industry. In the quantitative part, the factors affecting organizational reputation are ranked using the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) method and data is analyzed using the confirmatory factor analysis method and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). In the quantitative section, data collection tool is a researcher-made questionnaire based on categories and concepts obtained from qualitative part. Statistical sample includes 384 stakeholders of insurance companies in Tehran, Hamadan, Kermanshah, and Kurdistan provinces. FINDINGS: Winning customers' trust, organizational structure, culture instilling, macro strategies at three levels: Central Insurance, insurance companies, and technological programs are effective categories in the organizational reputation of the insurance industry. Increasing the penetration rate of insurance and creating psychological peace of society have been identified as the consequences of the main phenomenon. In general, 40 concepts effective in the organizational reputation of the insurance industry were identified. After the ranking, the national development programs are in the first place and the attention of insurance companies to social responsibility is placed in the last priority of the ranking table. CONCLUSION: The trust of customers in the insurance industry has a significant impact on the good reputation of the organization. It is one of the factors that influence the trust, organizational structure and macro strategies of the Central Insurance. Formulation of the Central Insurance’s strategies based on intra-organizational and extra-organizational cultural view will directly affect the actions of insurance companies (private and public).On the other hand, the road map of using new hardware and software technologies in the insurance industry will follow. The objective appearance of the strategies will be manifested in the perspective of the contacts and customers of the insurance industry, and that mental image that includes the perception of the sense of trust and good reputation will be formed in the public mind.
Original Research Paper
Marketing and Sales
M. Forouz Shahrestani; H. Doroudi; F. Hajialiakbari
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Brands are always influenced by internal and external factors that play a fundamental role in enhancing their value. Behavioral factors of employees at different levels, from high to operational, are considered organizational factors that have an impact on brand value. If these ...
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BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Brands are always influenced by internal and external factors that play a fundamental role in enhancing their value. Behavioral factors of employees at different levels, from high to operational, are considered organizational factors that have an impact on brand value. If these behaviors are positive, they lead to the promotion of brand value, but if they are negative and deviant, they are considered a threat to companies in a very competitive environment, especially public economic enterprises. Accordingly, it seems necessary to take efficient action to control and reduce deviant behaviors.METHODS: The current research is mixed in terms of exploratory-applied purpose and in terms of method. The statistical population of the research included all experts, including high-level managers, branch supervisors, and Iran Insurance Agencies in the northern provinces of the country, including Guilan, Mazandaran, and Golestan. In the qualitative part, the meta-synthesis qualitative method was used to collect the effective actions. Then, in order to determine the most effective actions from the point of view of Iran insurance experts, two-stage Delphi-fuzzy method was used. In the quantitative section, partial least squares method was used to validate and test the model. The sample size in the Delphi-fuzzy section was 30 experts, and in the quantitative section, 340 questionnaires were distributed among insurance personnel in 3 northern provinces by non-probability quota sampling method.FINDINGS: First, using the meta-synthesis qualitative method, effective actions to control and reduce deviant behaviors were counted and 51 actions were coded in 4 categories with thematic analysis method; Then, with the Delphi-Fuzzy technique and distribution of survey forms among 30 Iran insurance experts in the 3 northern provinces, 39 actions with definite numbers above 0.7. In the final 4 categories and a structural model to investigate the effect of the actions on the brand value was designed. In the quantitative part, a questionnaire containing 51 questions was distributed among 240 employees of the Iranian insurance branches and agencies in 3 provinces by quota sampling method. The structural model fitting results showed that the model has a strong fit with a goodness of fit index equal to 0.52. Also, the results of the path analysis showed that structural and organizational actions with a path coefficient of 0.79 have the greatest effect on brand value.CONCLUSION: In this research, it was found that one of the most important concerns of the managers of state-owned economic enterprises in the highly competitive market is the use of effective actions to control and reduce employee deviance so that they are within a logical and constructive range, otherwise, the value of their brands will be damaged. Therefore, to control and reduce such destructive behaviors, research proposals should be considered.
Original Research Paper
Insurance Social Studies
M. Khademi Gerashi; Sh. Tayyar; Sh. Nosrati
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Insuring is an enormous human capital that requires deep analyses of personality, social and cognitive actions. In other fields of insurance activities, the insurer may be happy with its organizational relationships, but the development of life insurance depends on influencing ...
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BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Insuring is an enormous human capital that requires deep analyses of personality, social and cognitive actions. In other fields of insurance activities, the insurer may be happy with its organizational relationships, but the development of life insurance depends on influencing people's minds and feelings. Therefore, considering that people with different personality traits and social statuses have different reactions to the offer of life insurance in terms of risk perception, this survey-based study deals with the structured analysis of the purchase intention of life insurance.METHODS: The current research is practical in terms of purpose, and is descriptive and exploratory in terms of method. Data was collected in the library and field using unstructured in-depth interview tools and questionnaires in a qualitative and quantitative manner. The theoretical and philosophical paradigm on which this research is based is a mixed interpretivism-positivist type. The research method used in the qualitative part is the descriptive phenomenological approach of the reflective world of Dahlberg et al. (2008). In the quantitative part of the questionnaire, a 5-point Likert scale was distributed through the sampling method. The data was obtained from 265 questionnaires in three regions of Tehran. The multiple linear regression method was used using SPSS software in data analysis.FINDINGS: The results of the hypothesis analysis showed that the dimension of committment has a significant relationship with the purchase intention of life insurance. Also, the findings show that the typology of the policyholder's personality affects the perceived risk, ultimately affecting the customer's action to receive life insurance. As conducted in this research, the dimension of commitment has a significant negative relationship with perceived risk. Also, a meaningful inverse relationship was found between perceived risk and purchase intention of life insurance. But the results showed that no social class factors affect purchasing life insurance.CONCLUSION: Exploring this research's results effectively solves insurers' challenge in correctly identifying target groups and analyzing diverse perceptions of people. According to the investigation results, life insurance, with its benefits, has been proven to enable a person to cover the uncertainty of risks. Insurance companies should consider the differences in families' attitudes to risk, explain the different types of life insurance, and provide recommendations regarding the appropriate insurance according to the conditions and demands of the customers. Also, they should explain the relevant ’protective and investment functions to customers and ensure that families with different risk attitudes are actively involved in the rational and scientific purchase of life insurance. The results of this study provide a better understanding of people’s responses to risk based on personality traits and show the importance of understanding the risk of not having a life insurance. If we know information about people's personality traits, we can predict people's behavior so that life insurance providers can design appropriate interventions to raise awareness among people in society.
Original Research Paper
Future research in the insurance industry
A. Najafpour; M. Yahyazadehfar; M. Shirkhodaie; J. Soltanzadeh
Abstract
Background and Objective: In today's rapidly evolving business ecosystem, particularly in the insurance industry, complexity and pace of change have reached a level where adaptation to these fluctuations and ensuring sustainability are essential for survival. This has a significant influence both on ...
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Background and Objective: In today's rapidly evolving business ecosystem, particularly in the insurance industry, complexity and pace of change have reached a level where adaptation to these fluctuations and ensuring sustainability are essential for survival. This has a significant influence both on small-scale and on strategic decisions made by business managers. Therefore, understanding the level of sustainability of companies within the dynamic contemporary environment is of utmost importance. This study aims to identify the sustainability assessment components of insurance companies in Iran and classify them based on sustainability using a clustering approach.METHODS: The study was carried out as applied work in terms of the objective and as a descriptive and survey work in terms of data collection and analysis approach. The statistical population of the study included all insurance companies in Iran. To determine the assessment indicators, the main indicators of the GRI model were extracted through an in-depth literature review and analysis of the Global Reporting Initiative website. After weighing these indicators, a structured questionnaire was designed and distributed among 12 experts, and the validity of the components was assessed through a two-round Fuzzy Delphi method. After confirming the components in two rounds, a structured questionnaire was formulated and distributed to 28 experts. Following data collection, insurance companies were classified using the k-means clustering method in SPSS.Findings: The research findings revealed 21 main components and 35 sub-components for assessing the sustainability of insurance companies in Iran. According to the results, the Iranian insurance companies were classified into three clusters based on sustainability: the first cluster included companies in the formation stage, the second cluster encompassed companies in the growth phase, and the third cluster consisted of companies in the development phase with regards to sustainability. Specifically, 17 companies were in the first cluster, 6 companies in the second cluster, and 5 companies in the third cluster.Conclusion: Companies strive to take steps towards sustainable development by providing sustainability reports, and the insurance industry is no exception. The insurance industry acts as a facilitator in promoting social, environmental, and economic activities. It possesses the necessary mechanisms and incentives to facilitate sustainable business activities on a macro level. However, segments within the insurance industry are susceptible to emerging risks stemming from social, environmental, and economic factors. Businesses deal with a variety of necessities at different levels of sustainability, and each insurance company aligns itself with a particular level of sustainability. The flexibility of insurance companies to adapt to changes and environmental transformations also varies. Therefore, insurance companies within each cluster must be adequately prepared for the changes.
Original Research Paper
Economics of finance / insurance
A. Souri; Z. Behboudirad; L. Niakan
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: One of the important issues that has attracted the attention of economists over the past decades is the role of financial systems in the economic growth of countries. Insurance industry is one significant component of financial markets. Therefore, the stability and efficiency ...
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BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: One of the important issues that has attracted the attention of economists over the past decades is the role of financial systems in the economic growth of countries. Insurance industry is one significant component of financial markets. Therefore, the stability and efficiency of insurance industry as a financial market sector is important for a country's economy. One of the most crucial changes in Iran's insurance industry is the regulations having been made in recent years. One main goal of regulation is to eliminate problems of market failure and improve efficiency. This research investigates the effect of these regulations on the efficiency of insurance companies in Iran.METHODS: The studied community is 27 insurance companies in the country and the relevant statistics were collected for the years 1385-1400 Persian Year (2005-2020). This study was conducted in two stages. In the first stage, the efficiency of insurance companies has been measured, using the method of data envelopment analysis (DEA) with the bootstrap approach. The implicit assumption of the traditional data envelopment analysis method is that the inputs and outputs are definite. But the output of an insurer is not necessarily certain. To solve this problem, we can use the bootstrap approach to obtain statistical characteristics for this technique. In the second stage, in order to investigate the effect of regulation on efficiency, according to the reviewed studies, the purpose of the present study, and the conditions of Iran's insurance industry, the effective factors on efficiency are determined and the regression model is defined. Then, the dynamic regression model was estimated using the generalized method of moments (GMM) and the related tests confirmed the validity of the results of the model. To calculate the efficiency and estimation of the model, MATLAB and Eviews software were used.FINDINGS: The most important finding of the research is the significant effect of regulation on efficiency. Also the coefficient of regulation, market share, and privateness of insurance companies are estimated as -0.066, 0.041 and 0.306 respectively.CONCLUSION: The results of the research show that regulation had a negative effect on the efficiency of insurers and led to a decrease in their efficiency, but the market share and the privateness of insurance companies had a positive effect on the efficiency. In the end, suggestions for improving the efficiency of insurers have been presented.
Original Research Paper
Economics of finance / insurance
M. Khanlou Savejbolagh; N. Nourolahzadeh; R. Darabi
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: During the last five years, the average rate of return on the assets for Civil Servants Pension Fund was only about 15%, and, during that period, about 75% of the financial resources required to fulfill the obligations of the Fund were provided by government grants. In this ...
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BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: During the last five years, the average rate of return on the assets for Civil Servants Pension Fund was only about 15%, and, during that period, about 75% of the financial resources required to fulfill the obligations of the Fund were provided by government grants. In this study, for the goal of asset-liability management of the Fund, determining the optimal investment portfolio of the Fund in major stock market groups has been studied and the proposed solutions for asset management in the form of modifying the fund's investment share in various stock market groups and with the aim of financial stability of the fund have been presented.METHODS: Research is quantitative in terms of the type of data and descriptive and applied in terms of purposes and results.Due to the use of the past performance of the stocks in the Fund portfolio and the study of the history of information, it is an event research. Quantitative research data for the period of 79 months (1584 working days) from March 2017 to October 2023 was collected from the data bank of the Iran Financial Information Processing Center of the Tehran Stock Exchange Technology Management Company, and to perform model calculations, the stock exchange assets of the Fund were separated into 18 stock groups, including pharmaceuticals, cement, lime, plaster, rubber and plastic, sugar, tile and ceramic, metal ore extraction, petroleum products, leather products, insurance, computer, non-metallic mineral, food except sugar, basic metals, intermediary financial institutions, investments, chemical, transportation, warehousing and communication, multi-disciplinary industries have been carried out. Data collection and data sorting were done using Microsoft Excel software, and objective functions were solved based on Markowitz patterns and value at risk using MATLAB software.FINDINGS: In the current investment portfolio of the Fund, the major share (about 95%) of the portfolio is dedicated to only three groups including "multi-industry", "transportation, warehousing and communication" and "chemical" and based on the efficiency frontier curve drawn based on historical data, the Fund's current portfolio is not on the mentioned curve, and the need to optimize the current portfolio was determined. The objective functions were solved based on the Markowitz models and value at risk to find the optimal portfolio of the Fund, and in three cases of the current investment portfolio, the optimal portfolio of the Markowitz model and the optimal portfolio of the value at risk model, the average daily rate of return is equal to 0.232, 0.235 and 0.230 percent respectively; the risk of the portfolio was 1.62, 1.31 and 1.21 percent respectively; and the return-to-risk ratio was equal to 0.143, 0.1793 and 0.1908 respectively. Therefore, it can be concluded that among the three studied investment portfolios, the portfolio from Makowitz's model is the best investment portfolio due to the highest return-to-risk ratio.CONCLUSION: In order to optimize the current investment portfolio of Civil Servants Pension Fund while maintaining the absolute amount of investment, the share of investment in the "multi-industry", "transportation, warehousing and communication" groups should be reduced and the share of groups such as "sugar", "cement, lime and plaster", "tiles and ceramics", "pharmaceutical" and "investments" should be increased.
