Produktinnovationen und Produktmodifikationen in der Versicherungswirtschaft: Rolle und Bedeutung nach der Deregulierung

One consequence of the deregulation of the insurance industry in 1994 is a considerably improved scope for insurance companies to design products. Therefore, the question should be raised if there is an observable effect on the insurer’s behaviour with regard to the development of new products. This paper embodies results of an empirical study that collected data of 650 products that were launched in the German insurance industry between 1996 and 2005 and that could be categorised as product innovations or as product modifications. On the basis of the study, it was possible for the first time to provide quantitative evidence that in the whole industry the amount of product innovations (in average 2,4 per year) as well as of product modifications (in average 63 per year) stayed on a modest level after the deregulation and that the evaluated impact of the deregulation on the development of new products is relatively small. This is also demonstrated by the fact that 27% of all German insurers developed only one new product in ten years. In addition, it became evident that there is no significant change in the extent of the (small) impact in the last ten years. Thus, the deregulation itself only sent limited impulses for renewing products in the German insurance industry. Apparently, the theoretical considerations are supported that while considering a high entrepreneurial risk and the absence of a monopoly rent at the same time the Value Based Management imposes a high hurdle for the insurance industry to develop new products. The role of renewing products is therefore determined by their value contribution to companies and customers, whereas the deregulation itself marginally changed this role.     

Empirische Analyse von Fusionen in der deutschen Versicherungswirtschaft

This empirical study examines the overall success of mergers in the German insurance industry between 1972 and 2002. Toward this end, the market share and operating expense ratio of newly-merged companies are being evaluated over a period of several years. It turns out that both ratios report slightly negative results in the years immediately following a merger, with measurable improvement showing after 4–6 years, especially for the market share. Mergers of companies of roughly equal size seem to be suffering from enhanced problems, an indication that merging similarly-sized organizations is specifically difficult. In particular, the operating expense ratio shows a negative trend in approximately 50 % of all mergers.     

Hedge-Fonds als Asset-Klasse: Betrachtungen aus der Perspektive der deutschen Versicherungswirtschaft

The over performance of hedge funds until the current financial market turbulences led to a large number of insurers increasing their hedge funds quota. In the following this asset class is examined and particularly analyzed with respect to its adequacy for an insurance company's asset allocation by focusing on the axiom of safety, as demanded by national law. The problem of survivorship-bias and the Markowitz requirements of normal-distribution and constant correlations among the asset classes and their impact on a strategic asset allocation are studied.     

Electronic Business in der Versicherungswirtschaft

In the last years a fundamental shift took place in the competitive environment of the financial services industry which was mainly due to the development of the internet. Because of its high degree of information this industry seems to be particularly suitable for electronically based transactions. For this reason the article analyses possibilities for and potentials of the use of electronic business in the insurance industry. These possibilities and potentials could be found on every step of the value chain of firms in the insurance industrie so that there are many possibilities to improve efficiency. The use of electronic business also leads to an intermediation of the value chain and to the emergence of new business models in the environment of insurance firms.     

Kundenbindung in der Versicherungswirtschaft: Ergebnisse einer theoretischen und empirischen Analyse

In this article customer retention is analysed both theoretically and empirically, especially the retention of customer to insurance intermediaries. After the construct of customer retention has been conceptualised, the determinants of customer retention in the insurance business are derived. The empirical analysis is based on interviews of German customers of an internationaly operating financial services company. A total of 1,003 interviews were conducted. The analysis of customer retention through the usage of structural equation modelling forms the main part of this article. A comparison of three methods — structural equation modelling, neural networks and decision trees — shows that they are complementary and a combined application of these methods brings additional insights. On the basis of the determinants of customer retention, a typology of customers is built through hierarchical cluster analysis. The management of customer retention can be realised either by manipulating the determinants of customer retention or by ad dressing the identified customer types with a segment specific marketing mix.     

Versicherungswirtschaft und alternative Nutzentheorien

In a seminal paper, Machina (1995) has shown that nearly all results of insurance economics which have been derived in the expected Utility frame-work remain valid even in the presence of violations of the independent axiom. However, this does not imply that the numerous alternatives to expected utility have no new implications for insurance economics. In order to show this, we especially analyze the differentiability assumption employed by Machina (1995). Since several alternative theories do not satisfy this assumption Machina’s results are not necessarily valid for these theories. In order to illustrate this fact we give a brief overview over those studies which analysed insurance economics with alternative theories and derived results which are in contrast to the expected utility framework.     

Kundenbindung in der Versicherungswirtschaft — neo-institutionenökonomische Analyse und marketingpolitische Ansatzpunkte

In the 90s a shift from a supply-driven to a demand-driven insurance market has taken place in Germany, and insurance companies have started to create customer loyalty by orientating their marketing policies towards the creation of and maintenance of long-term relationships. However, in the case of insurance services, uncertainty and the “information” factor play an important role. Therefore this article develops the characteristics of insurance services by using the paradigm of information economics and subsequently demonstrates the importance of trust in creating and maintaining long term insurer customer collaboration. Finally the economic implications of relational effects on customers and insurers are set forth. It can be shown that customer loyalty is mainly the result of successful management of customer relation.