Garantieversprechen für Gebrauchsgüter als erlaubnispflichtige Versicherungsgeschäfte aus deutscher und europäischer Sicht

The article deals with the conditions under which the provider of guarantees for consumer goods operates an insurance business and therefore needs a permit. This question is of fundamental academic importance as it concerns the limits of insurance. Secondly, it is of practical relevance, as is reflected in court decisions in Germany as well as in other European countries. A comparative analysis supports the following rules: An extension of the statutory warranty offered by the seller or manufacturer is normally to be regarded as ancillary to the purchase agreement, which does not lead to regulatory licensing requirements. By contrast, if a third party offers a guarantee this is to be considered as an insurance business and therefore requires a permit.     

Mittelbare Diskriminierungen bei Unisex-Versicherungstarifen

The article drafts a concept for applying the prohibition of indirect gender discrimination in the specific situation of insurance tariffs. In order to reveal indirect discrimination it has to be shown that each gender is affected differently by a differentiating factor to a significant extent. The basis is a statistical comparison between the total group and the disadvantaged subgroup (among potential insurance holders). Because of Art. 5 (1) of Council Directive 2004/113/EC a statistically verifiable risk difference cannot justify indirect discriminations by itself. The provision prohibits not only direct discrimination but also the use of differentiating factors highly correlated with one gender as the correlation leads to the inclusion of a higher gender-specific risk. Therefore only distinctions which are based on the individual insurance record can be justified as their aim is to influence future behaviour. In other cases it is necessary to separate the risk difference causally linked to the differentiating factor from the incorporated gender-specific risk difference.     

Defaults and advice in self-customization procedures of insurance

The customization of insurance products is a crucial factor for the success of many insurance companies because it allows customers to tailor the insurance according to their specific needs. Customization can lead to increased customer satisfaction and loyalty. Focusing on two vertical customization methods, by-attribute and by-alternative customization, we experimentally analyze the influence of defaults. Moreover, we compare the effect of defaults to the influence of stated advice. Our results demonstrate that defaults enhance the likelihood of choosing premium insurance compared to a situation without defaults for both the by-attribute customization and the by-alternative customization. However, the customization process itself has no influence on default acceptance. If insurance companies combine a default with extensive advice (i.?e., advice that provides an explanation for why the advice is given), customers are most likely to choose the premium insurance.     

Kongruente Rückdeckung von Pensionszusagen durch Versicherungsprodukte

When a German employer establishes a defined benefit pension plan for his employees, it is common practice in Germany to purchase life insurance policies in order to finance the plan and transfer the risks from the plan to the insurer. A complete transfer of risk can only be obtained by purchasing a congruent insurance policy. The present paper develops a formal definition of congruence of an insurance policy to a pension plan. The definition is applied to a simple practical example. It becomes clear that it is almost impossible to obtain congruence of a traditional German life insurance product to an employer's defined benefit pension plan.     

The role of electronic word of mouth,conventional media,and subjective norms on the intention to purchase <Emphasis Type="Italic">Sharia</Emphasis> insurance services

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of electronic word of mouth (eWOM) and conventional media on subjective norms and intention to purchase Sharia insurance in Indonesian Muslim society. The research data consisted of 458 Muslim clients who were members of an online community and also policy holders of Sharia insurance in the three largest cities in Indonesia: Jakarta, Semarang, and Surabaya. This study used purposive sampling and structural equation modeling. The research showed that eWOM and conventional media can affect subjective norms. Additionally, subjective norms have a significant effect on the intention to purchase among Sharia insurance customers. This study validated the importance of the variables of eWOM and conventional media in influencing subjective norms and intention to purchase. For Sharia insurance company management, this study can serve as a very useful reference in drafting and formulating campaign strategies. This study also justifies the integrated relationship between eWOM and conventional media with subjective norms and intention to purchase Sharia insurance.     

Kundenzufriedenheit als Steuerungsinstrument in einem Versicherungsunternehmen – nur Schall und Rauch oder ökonomisch sinnvoll?

Customer behavior is managed by customer satisfaction in two dimensions: Insurer can profit by a higher customer loyalty und in addition, by a sensitive price behavior of customers. The findings of moderating effects are mean considered and thus, customer satisfaction is a too strong indicator of economic success in established concepts. To mange an insurance company effective, it is a good advice to implement a model that is specific for each company. This model should respect the heterogeneous factors of influence due to customer satisfaction by multidimensional instruments. Hence, insurer may identify drivers of service and work with analysis of correlations to describe the coherence between customer satisfaction and economic success exactly. The alignment for customer satisfaction is worth for traditional insurance companies, but only, if customer satisfaction is understood as an economic valued management that is culturally based in the firm. Manager should account for this suggestion to follow a sustainable story in a saturated competitive environment.     

Betriebsunterbrechungsversicherung bei kleinen und mittleren Unternehmen

The business interruption caused by a property claim is an existential risk both for large industrial companies and for small to medium enterprises (SME). It is especially relevant for companies working on a more complex sales and production infrastructure. Statistics show that in case of a large property claim the cost of the accompanying business interruption claim frequently exceeds the property claim. In Germany, however, the share of companies opting for business interruption insurance is much smaller than those opting for property insurance. This is especially true for SME that can hardly cover the risk themselves. The goal of this paper is to analyze the insurance decision for a business interruption policy with a special focus on SME. As a database we use the results of a representative survey among 1802 German SME with up to 100 employees. Our results show that the decision for a business interruption policy is not only dependent on hard factors such as company size and industry, but also driven by the so-called “insurance mentality”, which includes risk aversion, insurance know-how and price-sensitivity.     

Potenziale von Telematik-Tarifen in der Kfz-Versicherung in Deutschland

The potential of telematics contracts in motor insurance in Germany is sometimes considered to be limited. In this article we present some theoretical thoughts and empirical results to this. Certain aspects of the acceptance of telematics tariffs will be looked at in an interdisciplinary way (legally, psychologically and economically) and they will be used in considering the assessment of potentials of telematics contracts. This article includes a legal analysis of the effects of the legally prescribed introduction of the emergency call system eCall coming into force in 2018. Additionally, it presents the results of a survey with regard to direct and indirect factors affecting the acceptance of telematics tariffs (regarding, among other things, their willingness to change their individual driving behaviour as well as their interest in telematics services). The empirical results provide evidence of potentials of telematics tariffs in Germany. Furthermore competitive strategies for market penetration will be reconsidered regarding the German insurance market and telematics. Thus this article is supposed to contrast media reports, which are rather negative, and to complete existing literature about telematics, which is still mostly technically and actuarially orientated. An extension of the previous understanding is realised by the selective presentation of interdisciplinary points of view. The overall picture of potentials regarding telematics tariffs in Germany is much more diverse than the picture drawn in most relating discussions.     

Private Hochwasservorsorge und Elementarschadenversicherung

In light of increasing flood damage, private flood mitigation gains more relevance. We investigate empirically whether the uptake of private flood mitigation measures in Germany is affected by (a) the perceived flood insurance coverage, and (b) public information campaigns focussing on flood hazards. We use a novel longitudinal dataset of more than 3200 households and employ a difference-in-differences estimation approach. The results show that households who state a change in their insurance status and report themselves as being insured mitigate more, not less. This contradicts the expectation of moral hazard and suggests that insurance and mitigation are rather seen as complements than substitutes. Moreover, the survey data suggest that many households falsely expect being flood-insured. Public information campaigns show no measurable effect on the flood mitigation behaviour of households, which poses questions about the effectiveness of large-scale information campaigns. In tendency, our results support the idea of compulsory flood insurance.     

Online-Aktivität als moderierender Effekt der Wirkung Convenience instrumentalisierender Attribute auf Kundengewinnung im Versicherungsneugeschäft

Digitization’s increasing influence on the Germans’ everyday lives leads to changes in their buying behavior. In the internet age, customer orientation means, inter alia, to actually understand the changes in the consumers’ expectations. This raises the question how the shift of customer activity from the analogue to the digital world changes the effect of certain exogenous, convenience exploiting attributes on a supplier’s predefined response variables (e.?g. customer acquisition). This article focuses on the insurance industry and, theoretically, deals with the question, whether doing business online can be considered as moderating effect of the relationship between convenience attributes (controllable by insurers) and customer acquisition as target figure in insurance business. Based on the example of contracting a new motor insurance policy it can be derived hypothetically that “digital customers” have different expectations in terms of speed of processing (as convenience attribute) than those signing a policy together with their agent.     

Die Versicherungsnachfrage von Unternehmen: Eine Empirische Untersuchung der Sachversicherungsnachfrage deutscher Unternehmen

This article presents the results of an empirical analysis regarding the corporate demand for insurance. As several studies before tested the theoretical arguments for the corporate motivation to purchase insurance, this article provides the fist empirical analysis focussing on the insurance demand of German corporations. The empirical evidence, found in the data of corporate clients of a German insurance company, supports the hypotheses regarding the relation between the demand for insurance and the size of the corporation, insolvency costs and real services of the insurer as well as the influence of the ownership structure of a stock corporation. Conflicting results were found regarding regulation.     

From Participation To Repurchase: Low Income Households And Micro-insurance

The article asks what drives the time to repurchase for life and accident insurance contracts in low income households. We use data on customers of a financial services provider from three states in India and find that the probability of repurchase is highest in the first 2 months after the contract expires, and steadily declines after. This suggests a window of opportunity for financial firms and governments to target customers to ensure continuous insurance purchase. Nonmembership of microfinance groups and poor rainfall in the month of expiry affect the time to repurchase adversely. Customers who take longer to repurchase tend to increase the amount of insurance cover.     

Understanding price competition in the German motor insurance market

This paper analyzes price competition in the German motor insurance market since 1994 and looks for evidence to back up a claim frequently found in the trade literature—that there have been two recent price wars in this industry, the first in 1996–1999, the second in 2005–2006. In a first step, we analyze the development of the German motor insurance market and compare it to that of other property-liability lines of business. In a second step the applicability of price war definitions found in the marketing literature to the German motor insurance market is checked. In a third step, a comparison to reference cases from other industries, where price wars have been subject to academic analysis, is conducted to complement the analysis. We conclude that, contrary to reports in the trade literature, the periods of 1996–1999 and 2005–2006 should be considered as times of intense competition in the motor insurance industry, not as times of price war.     

Effiziente Risikosteuerung durch die Kfz-Versicherung – Eine verhaltensökonomische Untersuchung

From an economic perspective, the automobile insurance plays an important role in regulating the activity level of driving by closing a prevention gap of the strict liability for automobile accidents. The gap is caused by bounded rationality of car owners and drivers. Unrealistic optimism and self-serving bias lead to an underestimation of expected damages. As a result, the activity level of driving would rise above the optimum, social costs would exceed the utility from driving and too many accidents would occur. The article illustrates how the automobile insurance counteracts these inefficiencies and thereby leads to a more efficient activity level.     

Wertorientierte Performancemessung im Kompositversicherungsunternehmen

Changing conditions on insurance markets and capital markets involve stronger requirements on the management of insurance companies. Here, the concept of value based management can provide a framework for efficient and profitable corporate management. Central point in this methodology is the value of the company. Changing values over time show the reached performance. In the presented paper we develop a model to value the cashflows especially for a property-liability-insurance company and adopt the model for performance measurement. The study examines theoretical aspects on the one hand and near practical aspects with the special focus on an examplary implementation on the other hand.     

Portfolio structure of the German households and the role of insurance and pension entitlements

This paper examines the wealth structure of German households from 1975 to 2014 with special reference to the asset class insurance and pension entitlements. Therefore we use a unique dataset of Deutsche Bundesbank and apply a Financial Almost Ideal Demand System (FAIDS). We find a nearly proportional reaction of the insurance share to changes in the total wealth level, but no significant impact of the insurance return to the asset class. Therefore we conclude that security and not return optimization is the main demand motive for the asset class insurance and pension entitlements. Finally, we find a positive relation between the share of the elderly in Germany and the insurance share in the portfolio.     

Digital insurance brokers—old wine in new bottles? How digital brokers create value

This article analyzes digital brokers in the countries of the DACH region, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, from a business model perspective. We argue that the potential to create new value for insurance customers has not yet been fully realized. Our analysis has identified two strategic action areas. The first concerns the exploitation of the wealth of customer data available. Those digital brokers who will succeed in generating new content and services using data analytics have the potential to take customer centricity and individuality to new bounds. The second centers around introducing aspects of community, such as connecting peers and enabling them to interact. The critical success factors are volume, a high degree of automation as well as leveraging the infrastructure and data to delivering new, value-adding content and services that go beyond traditional intermediation.     

Relationship intention of South African banking and life insurance customers

The effect of increasing competition, globalization and tough economic conditions has led to changes in how banking and life insurance firms operate. This has resulted in banking and life insurance firms focusing on retaining and building long-term relationships with their existing customer base by implementing a relationship marketing strategy. However, not all customers are willing to invest in building long-term relationships. Therefore, firms need to identify and target those customers who intend to support long-term relationships with the firm, that is those with a high relationship intention. The objective of this research was to investigate South African banking and life insurance customers’ relationship intention by determining the constructs constituting relationship intention and to determine whether differences exist between high and low-relationship intention customers for the identified relationship intention constructs. A non-probability, convenience sample was used to gather data from 401 respondents, with 202 from banking and 199 from life insurance customers. The results identified five constructs constituting relationship intention for the sample of respondents and indicated that high- and low-relationship intention respondents see four of the five constructs differently.     

Relationship intention of South African banking and life insurance customers

The effect of increasing competition, globalization and tough economic conditions has led to changes in how banking and life insurance firms operate. This has resulted in banking and life insurance firms focusing on retaining and building long-term relationships with their existing customer base by implementing a relationship marketing strategy. However, not all customers are willing to invest in building long-term relationships. Therefore, firms need to identify and target those customers who intend to support long-term relationships with the firm, that is those with a high relationship intention. The objective of this research was to investigate South African banking and life insurance customers’ relationship intention by determining the constructs constituting relationship intention and to determine whether differences exist between high and low-relationship intention customers for the identified relationship intention constructs. A non-probability, convenience sample was used to gather data from 401 respondents, with 202 from banking and 199 from life insurance customers. The results identified five constructs constituting relationship intention for the sample of respondents and indicated that high- and low-relationship intention respondents see four of the five constructs differently.     

Katastrophenanleihen als Risikotransfer-Instrument für Industrieunternehmen

All over the world an increase in natural catastrophes and resulting damages can be observed for entire economies as well as for individual industrial enterprises. This trend leads to extraordinary expensive traditional natural catastrophe insurance or even a lack of insurance capacities. Due to the increased threat resulting from natural catastrophes and the inefficiencies of traditional insurance solutions, it will be analyzed in the following whether catastrophe bonds (cat bonds), as an alternative risk transfer instrument, should play a role in the risk management portfolio of industrial companies. It will be discussed whether catastrophe bonds are possible risk transfer instruments for industrial companies and whether certain basic prerequisites for a confirmation of the suitability are recognizable. In a further step, the design possibilities for cat bonds will be presented and the most suitable design alternatives for industrial companies as issuers of cat bonds will be elaborated. In addition, a critical comparison between the usage of traditional insurance solutions and cat bonds by industrial companies in order to protect themselves against natural catastrophes will be conducted. The result is a first orientation and a general guideline for dealing with catastrophe bonds as part of the operational risk management for industrial companies.