Issue #1 (Volume 12 2021)

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected different sectors of the economy, including insurance, and has become a problem and a clear catalyst for innovation. The pandemic has highlighted some inefficiencies of the traditional model of interaction between insurers and their customers and focused on insurance companies’ efforts on innovations and investments in the digital future. That is why the article aims to generalize the transformations of the institutional environment in the InsurTech ecosystem in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and identify prospects for its development in the post-pandemic period.
The analysis of the functioning of InsurTech as an ecosystem necessitated the identification of challenges for the insurance market in the context of COVID-19. The peculiarities of the insurance market development have been identified: the blurring of boundaries between insurers, BigTech firms, and technological partners; expanding interaction with policyholders based on the principle of support and the use of social networks; changes in the structure of the implemented insurance services; an increase in insurance fraud cases; the growing demand for parametric insurance products; introduction of a digital approach to the interaction with customers and employees, modernization of technological infrastructure and expansion of data processing capabilities; remote risk identification; acceleration in the use of financial technologies by insurance market participants. There is a transformation of the insurance market under the influence of business processes digitalization because insurers are aware of the importance of InsurTech in the formation of competitive advantages.
For many companies, the crisis has strengthened their innovative development strategies and accelerated the implementation of financial technology tools in their business processes against the background of modernization of technological infrastructure. Chatbots, telematics, the Internet of Things, machine learning, artificial intelligence, predictive analytics, etc., are widely used. In the future, InsurTech will also play an important role in introducing digital innovations in the insurance market.

The insurance sector plays a critical role in the economy, providing protection and security of the state and influencing its social and economic development. However, having a significant potential for development, the sector cannot fully realize it due to many problems, including its shadowing. Using the method of unprofitable enterprises analysis, which is applied by the Ministry for Development of Economy, Trade and Agriculture of Ukraine to determine the level of the shadow economy, considering the type of economic activity, the level of shadowing of the insurance services sector in Ukraine and its regions in 2013 and 2018 was calculated. The calculation results showed an increase in the shadow level of the insurance services sector both in Ukraine as a whole and in the separate regions. To evaluate the effectiveness of the insurance sector potential, given the calculated level of shadowing, a comprehensive assessment was carried out by standardizing the values of selected indicators characterizing the potential of the insurance sector in the context of Ukraine’s socio-economic development. The indicators of the efficient use of the insurance services sector potential in Ukrainian regions, calculated using an integrated assessment, showed an increase in the efficiency of using the potential of the insurance sector in three out of five analyzed regions. Zaporizhzhia region demonstrated the most significant growth. It has been proven that an increase in the volume of services provided is a key factor in increasing the social and economic efficiency of the insurance sector.

The pace of digitalization of the insurance industry lags behind similar processes in the banking sector. The main tasks that a Russian insurer solves when using IT technologies are the automation of business operations and the formation of an online system of interaction with customers with the main focus on sales.
The purpose of this study is to systematize the effects achieved by insurance market participants when introducing IT technologies and identify incentives to accelerate the insurance sector digitalization. The goal of digitalization of Russian insurers should be the formation of a client interface with a full cycle of services; the transfer to a qualitatively new level of business processes while ensuring the required level of protection; formation of fundamentally new and timely renewal of the existing insurance products.
The priority areas of IT technologies used by Russian insurers are identified: cloud computing, chat bots, and information resources that provide online interaction with customers. Factors that have a stimulating effect on the digitalization of the insurance sector are identified: cost reduction, acceleration of business processes, improvement of the quality of customer service and increased competitiveness. The problems and risks of insurers that restrain the use of IT technologies are formulated: high costs of digitalization, lack of qualified personnel, cyber risks, moral and ethical problems.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the impact of risk indicators of insurance companies listed on the Palestine Stock Exchange on earnings per share over the period 2010–2017. The sample consists of seven insurance companies listed on the Palestine Stock Exchange. The data was analyzed using the OLS regression technique. This helps to determine the relationship between the independent variable (earnings per share) and the dependent variables (liquidity risk, capital risk, rate of risky assets). The results show that the liquidity risk has a positive impact on earnings per share, while capital risk and rate of risky assets have a negative impact. This means that insurance companies listed on the Palestine Stock Exchange can achieve an acceptable balance between the liquidity risk index and the earnings per share in a way that does not prevent them from fulfilling their obligations. The findings of this study are demonstrated using figures and diagrams. The study recommends that insurance companies need to pay extra attention to risks and identify effective policies to deal with risks and reduce their impact, especially capital risk and the rate of risky assets. This is because these factors negatively affect earnings per share. The results of this study will be useful to relevant stakeholders in the sector.

Acknowledgment
We would like to thank the Palestine Technical University for their continuous and valuable support.

The most important trends in the modern economy are convergence – the process of convergence of activities of various economic entities and digitalization. Their interaction creates new opportunities for increasing the competitiveness and efficiency of insurance companies. The purpose of the paper is to identify economic convergence processes taking place on the Russian insurance market, which, when using different digitalization products, lead to new business models of partnership. The results of the conducted empirical analysis confirm the existence of economic convergence processes at all levels (intra-segment, intersegment and inter-sectoral) on the Russian insurance market. The proof of this is the significant reduction in the number of insurers in 2021 to 158, compared to 600 insurers in 2011. Over the past three years, the share of sales of insurance products with the participation of banks acting as intermediaries in the sales of insurance services has increased by 1.5 times. Also, along with insurance companies, health care companies have increasingly become involved in such operations. Digitalization products (information technologies (IT); IT and IT platforms; IT, IT platforms and networks) have a huge impact on the forms of organizing joint business with the participation of insurance companies. Some insurance companies do not provide opportunities to issue an insurance policy online or pay an insurance premium, i.e. they use sites for only minor customer interactions. Most often, Russian insurance companies use mobile applications. The impact of various digitalization products at different levels of economic convergence of insurers initiates multivariate business models of joint business.

The topic of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has gained considerable popularity among researchers in recent decades in the Czech Republic. However, given this, no detailed study has been demonstrated on whether Czech insurance firms benefit from this. The paper uses an extensive content analysis method to investigate the impact of CSR on financial performance in 23 Czech insurance companies. These companies are included in the Czech Association of Insurance Companies, over the past years 2019 and 2020. Further, the GRI CSR Disclosure Index and correlation analysis are used. The results indicate a significant relationship between CSR disclosure and financial results. There is a linear positive relationship between CSR and ROE, and between CSR and ROA, even a significant one between CSR and ROE. The study suggests that insurance companies in the Czech Republic ought to make continuous efforts so that their CSR activities have a positive effect on their future development.

In the context of the crisis in Ukraine, it is important to increase the competitiveness of the insurance sector as a measure of its stability and dynamism under various scenarios of economic development. The purpose of this paper is to assess the competitiveness of the insurance sector and determine the impact on its level of factors caused by economic crises. Using the method of integrated analysis, the index of competitiveness of the insurance industry is built, which considers the number of businesses, employment, sales, capital investment in the industry, insurance sector performance, share of profitable enterprises, and profitability of the insurance sector in Ukraine for 2012–2020. The results showed that the impact of the 2014–2015 crisis due to endogenous factors, namely political instability in the country and the devaluation of the hryvnia, led to a significant reduction in the competitiveness index of the insurance sector. At the same time, during the pandemic, the insurance sector is stabilized, as evidenced by the growth of sales and the share of profitable enterprises, as well as increasing profitability of insurance activities. The competitiveness index did not change significantly during the pandemic. To analyze the dependence of the integrated indicator of the competitiveness of the insurance sector on economic fluctuations during the crisis, regression equations are constructed. It is proved that the greatest impact on the competitiveness index of the insurance sector in times of crisis is exerted by changes in employment and the amount of capital investment.

Insurance companies form their own business models based on the interests of stakeholders. Changes in business models are due to the impact of COVID-19, deepening digitalization and customer orientation. Accordingly, the aim of the study is to systematize the approaches to business models of insurance companies using emerging market country (Ukraine) as an example, and to show the change in a business model according to the CANVAS approach under the influence pandemic. In accordance with the purpose of the study, business models of insurance companies were systematized and grouped into blocks: value-based, structural, complex, and strategic. The strategic block identifies strategic changes in the activities of insurance companies and reflects trends on the insurance market. With this in mind, business models of insurance companies should reflect the set of strategic decisions, their architecture, structure and facilitate the management of value creation operations on the insurance market. Business models have changed from traditional to innovative, hybrid and digital-oriented. The main changes in the business models of insurance companies are omnichannel communications, the launch of chatbots, Big Data, Mobile ID, Bank ID, online access to registers, Blockchain. The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a shift in business models towards socially responsible business and adherence to sustainable development goals.