‘Not to bet the farm’: SANLAM and internationalisation, 1995–2010

The South African Life Assurance Company (SANLAM) entered global markets after 1990, with varied success. Contextual pressures exerted a ‘push’ on financial services companies, which led to strategic changes in firm strategy, structure and performance. Theories of internationalisation afford more attention to industrial production internationalisation. This article explores the SANLAM experiences with internationalisation since the early 1990s. Initial internationalisation attempts were less successful, leading to strategic business changes, which led to a change in the globalisation strategy and more success in alternative markets. This article explores the different stages of SANLAM’s internationalisation strategy and what determined eventual success. The article contextualises the SANLAM internationalisation strategy by drawing on aspects of the process theory, the Matthews Linkage, Leverage and Learning (LLL) framework, and the Strategy, Structure, Organisation and Performance (SSOP) analytical framework. The SANLAM case underlines the crucial role of tacit knowledge of the host market as prerequisite for successful globalisation strategies of financial services’ firms.     

Deposit insurance around the world: A comprehensive analysis and database

This paper provides a comprehensive, global database of deposit insurance arrangements as of 2013. We extend our earlier dataset by including recent adopters of deposit insurance and information on the use of government guarantees on banks’ assets and liabilities, including during the recent global financial crisis. We also create a Safety Net Index capturing the generosity of the deposit insurance scheme and government guarantees on banks’ balance sheets. The data show that deposit insurance has become more widespread and more extensive in coverage since the global financial crisis, which also triggered a temporary increase in the government protection of non-deposit liabilities and bank assets. In most cases, these guarantees have since been formally removed but coverage of deposit insurance remains above pre-crisis levels, raising concerns about implicit coverage and moral hazard going forward.     

Optimal insurance under rank‐dependent utility and incentive compatibility

Bernard, He, Yan, and Zhou (Mathematical Finance, 25(1), 154–186) studied an optimal insurance design problem where an individual's preference is of the rank‐dependent utility (RDU) type, and show that in general an optimal contract covers both large and small losses. However, their results suffer from the unrealistic assumption that the random loss has no atom, as well as a problem of moral hazard that provides incentives for the insured to falsely report the actual loss. This paper addresses these setbacks by removing the nonatomic assumption, and by exogenously imposing the “incentive compatibility” constraint that both indemnity function and insured's retention function are increasing with respect to the loss. We characterize the optimal solutions via calculus of variations, and then apply the result to obtain explicitly expressed contracts for problems with Yaari's dual criterion and general RDU. Finally, we use numerical examples to compare the results between ours and Bernard et al.     

An empirical analysis of the factors influencing farmer demand for forest insurance: Based on surveys from Lin’an County in Zhejiang Province of China

The lack of effective farmer demand is a major factor that restricts the development of China's forest insurance. To solve this problem, this study uses a Logit model to conduct an empirical analysis of relevant factors in the farmers’ demand for forest insurance, based on field survey data of Lin’an County, Zhejiang Province. The results show that the farmers’ understanding of forest insurance, the proportion of forestry revenues in the total household income, forest size, forest disaster frequency, forest insurance liability, insurance amount setup, and the farmers’ satisfaction regarding the premium subsidy policy, are the main factors that affect the farmers’ demand for forest insurance. Therefore, we propose to expand forest insurance promotion, raise the farmers’ income, rationally design insurance products, and optimize the forest premium subsidy policy to enhance the farmers’ willingness to participate in forest insurance.     

Atributos relevantes de calidad en el servicio y su influencia hacia la lealtad de marca en la industria aseguradora de automóviles en México

The objective of this study is to identify key quality service attributes in the automobile insurance business and determine their influence on brand loyalty. In this study distinction is made between the service during the hiring of the service and the service provided after an accident. In a preliminary exploratory inquiry quality service attributes were identified with the application of in-depth interviews. In an empirical study, hypothesis related to a direct relationship between the attributes and several measures of brand loyalty are contrasted. A sample of n = 210 of automobile insurance clients was conformed. Five regression models were developed for the data analysis, one for each loyalty measure. These analyses allowed a specific detection of significant attributes for each case. Though it is concluded that attributes related to the service after the accident have a higher degree of influence on the customer loyalty, it is found that a particular attribute during hiring (reputation of the insurance company) also has an important role.     

大学生医疗保险的现状分析与政策改进——基于内蒙古自治区呼和浩特市6所高校的实证研究

通过对呼和浩特市6所高校的学生访谈和问卷调查，分析得出：将大学生纳入城镇居民基本医疗保险试点范围的政策，初步实现了与公费医疗的制度转换，但还有不少问题，需要进一步的改进和完善。笔者认为，要根据大学生的生理特点、经济承受能力以及对医疗保险的需求意愿，坚持分责制的建制理念，以“重预防、保大病”为重点，建立一种以疾病预防保健为基础，基本医疗保险为核心，大额医疗保险为应急和商业保险为辅助的大学生医疗保障模式。     

保险业新主体公司的经济绩效与组织管理及人力资本利用

近年来保险业许多成立的新主体公司,为了抢占市场份额,在所采取的各种组织措施和组织手段中,其最重要的组织管理与人力资源利用的制度却出现了矛盾和悖论,进而又出现了人力资源利用与经济绩效的悖论,并造成人力资本的原子状态,使公司成员缺乏团队精神,不能形成整体的合力,并带来公司内人际关系紧张等一系列严重问题。究其问题的核心,发现其组织管理制度和人才激励机制是对人的扭曲,把人降低为物当成了工具。这样的问题如果不能得到及早、尽快地解决,不仅会影响新主体公司的生存和发展,甚至会危及整个保险业的健康发展。     

Understanding Insurance Customer Dishonesty: Outline of a Situational Approach

The paper takes a look at insurance customer dishonesty as a special case of consumer ethics, understood as a way of situation handling, as a moral choice between right and wrong, such as between self-interest vs. common-interest, in other words, a “moral temptation”. After briefly raising the question if different schools, of moral philosophy would conceptualize such moral temptations differently, the paper presents ‘moral psychology’ as a frame of reference, with a focus on cognitive moral development, moral attitude and moral neutralization. Conceptualization questions can’t be answered finally without thinking at the same time of empirical research design and instrument design decisions, e.g. choosing between experiment vs. questionnaire studies, designing suitable moral temptation situations as an experiment vs. questionnaires with scenario vignettes. The paper discusses then experiences from a 2004 pilot survey, with a main focus on a few insurance dishonesty scenarios with follow-up questions. The paper has an open end, i.e. outlines desirable future theoretical, empirical and practical work with insurance customer dishonesty.     

寿险营销人员知识素质结构与寿险业发展相关性研究

本文认为,寿险营销人员知识素质水平的高低直接影响着寿险公司的信誉和寿险市场的健康发展,它们之间成正相关关系.当前我国寿险营销人员知识水平普遍不高,对专业知识缺乏系统、深入的了解;综合能力不够,不能适应市场要求;职业素质良莠不齐,误导客户的现象时有发生;部分营销人员敬业、奉献精神不足,寿险营销队伍很不稳定.这些都已经严重影响到了我国寿险业的公信力和信誉度,影响到了寿险业的可持续发展.文章提出,为促进寿险业可持续发展,必须高度认识提高寿险营销人员知识水平和素质的必要性和迫切性;通过政府主管部门和寿险公司等多方面努力,多管齐下抓好寿险营销队伍建设;依托高等院校,培养高素质创新型、复合型寿险营销人才.     

社会统筹养老金供给的两难困境与政策选择

在中国养老保险制度建立与完善过程中,其主要矛盾仍然是如何筹资和如何给付的问题。社会统筹主要通过提高缴费率和扩大覆盖面两条途径来增加基金供给,而现行制度却面临着养老金供给的两难困境。一是提高缴费率增加了基金收入,但不利于经济增长与扩大覆盖面;二是不同群体实行差别费率有利于扩大覆盖面,但加剧了养老金收支的失衡。经数理模型与实证分析,社会统筹缴费率应该保持适度水平,同时应该对不同群体实行差别费率的政策进行调整,以建立养老保障的长效机制。