Issue #1 (Volume 14 2023)

In this digital era, customers in the insurance sector always look for better insurance products and services at an affordable price. When customers are unsure about service, they switch over to a better service provider. This behavior is more relevant to non-life insurance. However, the switching behavior of customers is hampered by certain switchover barriers such as “brand consciousness”, “brand pride”, “brand loyalty”, etc. This study focuses on exploring switching intentions and switching behaviors of adults in India keeping “brand love” as a mediator. A structured questionnaire was employed to collect the primary data from adults having non-life insurance products to analyze switching intentions and switching behaviors. The collected data were analyzed employing SPSS software and Hayes Process Model and appropriate statistical tools. The study results show that the switching intentions of adults vary based on their age, annual income, and education. Mean scores reveal that the lesser the age, the higher the intention to switch over. Further, based on annual income, adults who earn up to Rs 2 lakhs annually have more switching-over intentions (Mean score: 3.9719) followed by adults who earn Rs more than 2 lakhs to 5 lakhs annually (Mean score: 3.7590). Mean scores of education levels regarding switching intentions are higher among more educated adults and less among those who are qualified up to the school level.

This study aims to investigate the effect that firm-specific factors have on the financial performance of South African insurance companies. This paper looked at the performance of 36 insurers that are publicly traded and have quantifiable markets from 2008 to 2019. The return on assets (ROA) was calculated as a function of the financial performance in this study. While the firm size, leverage ratio, premium growth rate, liquidity ratio, and tangibility of assets were examined as dependent factors using the panel data regression technique, the premium growth rate, liquidity ratio, and tangibility of assets were explored as independent variables. According to the findings of the regression analysis, other firm-specific factors, with the exception of leverage and liquidity ratios, do not have a statistically significant influence on the financial performance of South African insurance companies. A negative and insignificant association was discovered between premium growth rate and ROA at –0.0023 and tangibility of assets and ROA at –0.0113. There was a strong positive and significant relationship between liquidity ratio and ROA at 0.0927, while the size had a positive but insignificant relationship with ROA at 0.0039. Leverage ratio and ROA had a negative but significant relationship at –0.1512. This study suggests that the use of automated systems and insured techs will be advantageous in cutting costs associated with policyholder enrollment, claims agreement, and even easily achieved tailor-made policy initiatives.

The low adoption of insurance by potential policyholders in developing countries like Kenya is a cause for concern for insurers, regulators, and other marketing stakeholders. To effectively design targeted marketing strategies to boost insurance adoption, it is crucial to determine the factors that affect insurance uptake among potential policyholders. In this study, the 2021 FinAccess Survey, which interviewed sampled individuals above 16 years in Kenya and machine learning techniques, including Random Forest, XGBoost, and Logistic Regression, were utilized to uncover the factors driving insurance uptake and the reasons for the low adoption of insurance among potential policyholders. Random Forest was the most robust model of the three classifiers based on Kappa score, recall score, F1 score, precision, and area under the operating characteristic curve (approaching 1). The paper explores eight reasons why people currently do not have insurance policies. The results indicated that affordability was the primary driver of uptake with 68.67% of having expressed a desire to possess insurance but are unable to afford it. The highest level of education being the next most significant factor. Cultural and religious beliefs and mistrust of insurance providers were found to have a minimal impact on uptake. These findings imply that offering affordable insurance products and conducting awareness campaigns are critical to increase insurance adoption.

This paper aims to analyze the evolution of the leading commercial insurance company Česká pojišťovna on the Czech insurance market in the years 1947–2021. Its evolution was closely linked to the processes of building socialism in the 1950s and the federalization of Czechoslovakia at the end of the 1960s. The paper uses qualitative research methods, methods of description and comparison, as well as local micro-historical analyses shall be applied. The main features of insurance products in the period of the totalitarian regime are characterized. Both the economic transformation in the 1990s and globalization in the last decades have had a radical effect on the further development of the analyzed company Česká pojišťovna. In the period after 1989, the development is marked by a focus on changes in the shareholder structure of the analyzed insurance company, and the development of its market share is shown. As a result of demonopolization, new companies could emerge, creating a competitive environment. The leading commercial insurance company Česká pojišťovna’s market share gradually began to decline.

Acknowledgment
This paper was supported by the project SGS/24/2022 “Financial stability determinants of the selected financial institutions”.

This study examines the factors and issues affecting the adoption of electronic insurance (EI) in the Jordanian insurance sector. The methodology of the study is based on convenience sampling, thus, the sample consists of 175 respondents familiar with E-services, with different backgrounds, professions, businesses, income groups, sectors, and regions. Questionnaires were distributed and disseminated electronically using SurveyMonkey. The study employs both descriptive and ANOVA analyses to analyze the responses. The results show that EI promotes sustainability, reduces costs, saves time and holds some operational benefits beneath. The ANOVA results show that the impact of income and age on sustainability, cost-effectiveness, and operational benefits is significant at least at the 5% significance level. Respondents are also aware that EI may involve issues and challenges related to security and privacy, customer-related issues such as lack of knowledge about repositories, and insurer-related issues such as data shifting. The ANOVA results indicate that gender affects customers’ perceptions of EI adoption regarding customer-related issues; its effect is significant at the 5% level of significance. On the other hand, age and income level are important factors that shape respondents’ perceptions of EI in Jordan. Age is only significant for security-related issues, and income level is a deciding factor in insurer-related issues; their effect is strong and highly significant at the 5% and 1% levels, respectively.

Social insurance has been a pivotal tool in implementing social security. The purpose of the study is to analyze the existing information clusters (areas) in the field of social insurance. Clusters define related and unrelated groups in the field of social insurance. These groups will help streamline and identify areas where little or no research has been conducted to present. To achieve the objective, the study employed a precise and systematic procedure to gather 562 journal articles published in Scopus-indexed journals from 1926–2022. Subsequently, VOSviewer, Science of Science (Sci2), and Gephi were utilized to conduct bibliometric analysis (such as keyword co-occurrence and bibliographic coupling) and network analysis tests (such as citation and co-citation analysis). The results of keyword co-occurrence and co-citation analysis suggest there are three knowledge clusters: welfare provisions, benefits provided by social insurance, and social insurance operational aspects. Through analysis found top article-based Inequality, social insurance, and redistribution with 408(LC) and 1042(GC) and its page rank value is 0.010574 through prestigious analysis. Additionally, it is also observed that I. Nielsen had made the most substantial contributions as an author, with R. Smyth and C. Nyland following closely in the rankings. Also, observed maximum total link strength with 109 value on social security variable. The study also drawn attention to specific deficiencies, including regional concentration of research, insufficient research in developing and underdeveloped countries, inadequate knowledge sharing among researchers, limited methodological diversity, and a lack of research on the role of social insurance in facilitating society’s recovery from the pandemic.

The full-scale russian invasion and war in Ukraine have inflicted substantial damage on the Ukrainian economy across various sectors. During crises, a common phenomenon is a decline in market competitiveness. This paper seeks to investigate whether the war in Ukraine has resulted in a reduction of competitiveness in the Ukrainian insurance market. To assess this, a range of traditional measures of market concentration, as well as various statistical tests, were applied to three crucial indicators from the Ukrainian insurance market, namely, assets, insurance premiums, and insurance payments for the period from January 1, 2022 to July 1, 2023. The findings suggest that, despite substantial losses incurred by the Ukrainian insurance market due to the invasion, the competition in the market did not experience significant degradation. However, the existing trends indicating a propensity for increased market concentration are cause for concern and demand immediate attention from regulators to prevent the deterioration of the market. To prevent market degradation stemming from current trends, regulatory bodies like the National Bank of Ukraine should carefully monitor adverse developments. They ought to integrate commitments to ensure market competitiveness, complemented by specific quantitative metrics for oversight, into their strategic plans and concepts for the development of the insurance market. Given the persistent threat of russian bombing in Ukraine, a viable and promising direction involves the proactive adoption of digital services and products.

Acknowledgments
Alex Plastun gratefully acknowledges financial support from the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine (0121U100473).

This study aims to analyze the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on insurance companies` performance. Data spanning 2018 to 2022 from the Wall Street Journal Database was employed, encompassing 1,931 companies across 65 countries. The research distinguishes between developed (808 insurers) and emerging markets (1,123 insurers) to identify more real consequences of the pandemic. The random effects model was utilized for regressions, which run in three stages. The dependent variables (Return on Assets and Return on Equity) and the independent variables (the COVID-19 pandemic and four firm-specific factors such as claim expenses, company size, leverage, and liquidity) were analyzed. In developed markets, the study confirms the significant negative consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic on insurance firms, resulting in a global decline in performance. Conversely, emerging markets reveal a different scenario where company size plays a substantial role in insurance company performance, particularly in return on assets, aligning with findings favoring larger insurance entities. However, when considering company size’s interaction with COVID-19, larger insurers in emerging markets experienced performance declines during the pandemic. While leverage significantly affects insurance firm performance in both market types, its interaction with the pandemic shows no substantial impact. Liquidity, as represented by cash holding does not significantly enhance performance, particularly in developed markets, but higher cash reserves during the pandemic negatively affect performance, primarily in emerging markets. These findings provide insights for insurance company managers to develop adaptive strategies amid evolving market conditions and potential crises, including pandemics like COVID-19.

The financial performance of insurance companies plays a fundamental role in driving the overall economy towards economic development and progress. The study aims to examine the impact of financial performance indicators on the Return on Equity (ROE) and Return on Assets (ROA) of nonlife insurance companies. In the methodology of study, 13 nonlife insurance companies have been considered, and panel data have been analyzed for a 14-year period (2008–2021). The fixed effects model was estimated using the E-Views software package. The panel data analysis results point to a noteworthy and favorable impact on ROA, explaining 92.75% of its variance. The results show that there is a strong positive relationship between ROA and four key factors: gross premium, retention ratio, expense ratio, and combined ratio. This underscores the importance of enhancing elements like gross premium, retention ratio, expense ratio, and combined ratio to elevate ROA. The conclusion of the study provides useful insights for improving the financial performance and competitiveness of nonlife insurance companies in Nepal. The study reveals the key success factors that affect the profitability and efficiency of the insurance sector. This suggests that nonlife insurance companies in Nepal can improve their profitability by focusing on increasing their gross premium, retention ratio, reducing expense ratio, and decreasing combined ratio. The findings have important implications for enhancing the performance and competitiveness of the nonlife insurance sector in Nepal.

The insurance sector is a significant component of the economy and its financial system. Therefore, sound growth and protection of the insurance industry against systemic risks are critical requirements for any country’s social and economic development. The paper analyzes the dependence between insurance demand represented by insurance penetration and various factors from economics, finance, socio-demographics, and institutions. The analysis is conducted within certain clusters of European countries, which are determined by functional clustering analysis concerning the magnitude and shape of the insurance penetration curves. The dependence is analyzed via linear mixed-effect models. The analysis shows significantly different dependencies between the clusters, proving the existence of different conditions for different European insurance markets, especially concerning economic growth, income, financial development, and unemployment. In contrast, interest rates, inflation, urbanization, and education do not play a significant role in these insurance markets. The institutional development seems insignificant for all clusters except for certain economies in transition. The findings imply that there is a need for countries across Europe to identify country-specific determinants of insurance. In that respect, European policymakers and managers can direct specific policies based on the identified determinants’ relationship with insurance, especially in developing countries.

This study aimed to determine the effect of operational efficiency on financial health of non-life insurance companies in South Africa. Operational efficiency refers to an insurer’s ability to deliver its services while minimizing costs and maximizing profitability. A descriptive research design was used to achieve the objective of this study. The panel data from 2008–2019 used secondary data sourced from S&P Capital Q and Refinitiv Eikon, well-known databases with readily available data. The population of this study focuses on 32 non-life insurance companies with measurable markets of 57 domestic non-life insurance providers in South Africa. Data were analyzed using Fixed-effect regression, (Random-effect GLS regression, correlation, and the Hausman test. The result reveals that of all the variables, only premium growth correlates significantly (negative correlation) with financial health. This could be a result of a specific investment that resulted in a lower rate than that of a risk-free security. It is also important to note that a negative premium does not always indicate a problem. This can happen due to cancellations of reinsurance, reinsurer closures, paid off reinsurance ahead of time, under- pricing policies, inadequate reserves, high claim frequency, operational inefficiencies, investment losses, inadequate risk assessment, economic downturn, regulatory changes, catastrophic event, and any other events. It is essential for non-life insurance companies to carefully manage their underwriting practices, risk assessment, pricing strategies, and investment portfolios to avoid negative premium situations and maintain financial health.

Transparency is a fundamental necessity for the insurance market in the modern fast-changing and digital world. The study aims to establish, based on bibliometric analysis, the research trends and subject areas of the insurance market transparency, including the impact of digital technologies, regulatory initiatives, and the internal policies of insurance companies. A bibliometric analysis of papers published in the journals indexed by the Scopus database for the years 1988–2023 was conducted to achieve this goal. Five clusters have been identified based on the analysis of the shared use of keywords, demonstrating the multidisciplinary nature of the research subject. They cover government regulation and risk management; ethics; technological innovations in increasing transparency; transparency of prices and costs in health insurance; and state medical insurance transparency. The analysis of insurance market transparency trends has allowed identifying four key stages of development: post-crisis regulatory mechanisms (2013–2016), Solvency II regulation effectiveness (2017–2019), transparency during the pandemic (2020–2021), and the impact of digital innovations since 2021. Spatial clustering made it possible to identify five groups of countries whose representatives are co-authors of research on insurance market transparency. The leading countries in research on insurance market transparency are the USA, the UK, and Germany.

Acknowledgment
This research was funded by the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine (projects No. 0122U000774 “Digitalization and transparency of public, corporate and personal finance: the impact on innovation development and national security”, No. 0123U101945 “National security of Ukraine through the prevention of financial fraud and money laundering: war and post-war challenges”). This research was funded under the research subsidy of the Faculty of Organization and Management of the Silesian University of Technology in Poland for the year 2023 (13/990/BK_23/0178).

The paper examines, using the example of Ukraine from 2003 to 2020, how and to what extent the development of various segments of the insurance market (risk insurance, life insurance, and reinsurance) influences the overall level of social progress. It also identifies the time gaps through which this influence manifests. The study creates a single measure that looks at various aspects such as social class differences, spending patterns, income changes, and government social spending (their standardized values, weighed by the principal component method, integrated through additive convolution). Using VAR modeling, the impact of the development indicators of different segments of the insurance market (risk insurance, life insurance, and reinsurance) at the current moment and with lags of one, two, and three years is investigated, as well as the level of social progress in Ukraine in previous years. The modeling confirms that social reforms yield significant results for social progress only after three years, similarly to the increase in the number of insurance companies. Given insurers’ assets and payout levels, their growth in life insurance has a faster impact on social progress than in risk, while the opposite is true for premiums. Insurance premiums transferred to Ukrainian reinsurers negatively and slowly (over three years) affect social progress, and to non-resident reinsurers – positively and faster (within a year). Across most indicators, life insurance not only influences Ukraine’s social progress more quickly than others but also provides a more substantial social effect.