Issue #2 (Volume 15 2024)

Despite the government’s financial support and promotion by the regulator, the agriculture insurance market is still in the nascent stage in Nepal. The paper aims to examine how awareness level and risk management perception affect the farmers’ satisfaction, taking non-financial satisfaction as a mediating factor. The study was conducted in two metropolitan cities, Pokhara and Bharatpur, in Nepal. Cluster and purposive sampling design was applied to select the respondents. Opinions were obtained through the structured questionnaire from 400 farmers with experience in agriculture insurance. The survey instrument had two parts. The first part was related to demographic information, while the second part measured attitude to risk management, clients’ awareness of insurance, financial satisfaction, and non-financial satisfaction. Almost three forth of the respondents (74.75%) were males and more than half (52%) possessed more than 8 ropani of land. Descriptive statistics, inferential statistics, exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling were used to arrive at conclusions. The results revealed that respondents’ awareness toward agriculture insurance is the most agreed construct (mean = 4.35), followed by financial satisfaction (mean = 3.88), non-financial satisfaction (mean = 3.70), and risk management attitude (mean = 3.5). Although the results did not confirm the mediating effect of non-financial satisfaction on financial contentment and awareness level, a partial mediation effect exists between risk management attitude and financial satisfaction. Financial serenity and non-financial gratification have the strongest association. This study suggests executives and regulators expand risk management capacity and awareness initiatives to increase client satisfaction and loyalty to crop insurance.

Acknowledgment
The University Grants Commission, Nepal, is acknowledged for the financial support to conduct the study under the FRG MGMT 4-2019/20. The support of MBA students Mr. Dhan Bahadur Jagari and Lalit Bahadur Shahi is highly appreciated for their fieldwork as enumerators.

The escalating wartime risks in Ukraine has led to a rapid reduction in insurance coverage in life and non-life segments. The purpose of the study is to rank Ukraine’s insurance companies based on an adaptation of the DEA method to the insurance market conditions. The study utilized the Supervisory Statistics of the National Bank of Ukraine as data. The study also used ranking of insurance companies based on technical efficiency criteria. The output indicators include the profitability of total capital (Output1) and the occupied share of the insurance market (Output2). The input indicators comprise the volume of total assets of insurers (Input1), the share of equity capital in assets (Input2), the level of gross payments (Input3), and the level of payments to insurance reserves (Input4). The ranking of insurance companies is based on minimizing the distance of each from the bounds of technical efficiency by solving a set of optimization problems. Based on the modeling results, a list of market leaders (7 companies) was formed for the end of the third quarter of 2023. They served nearly 37% of the insurance market in Ukraine, accumulating 41.5% of the total assets of this financial market sector. So, the primary issue for insurance companies is the loss of solvency due to the absence of adequate levels of insurance reserves. Therefore, priority measures should include strengthening regulatory constraints in this financial market segment to facilitate its qualitative renewal.

This paper explores the asymmetric effects of life and non-life insurance on economic growth in Saudi Arabia. Quarterly data on insurance penetration rates and GDP growth from 2009 to 2022, obtained from the Global Economy, Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority, and World Bank databases, are utilized. A nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag (NARDL) model is employed to examine the relationships between insurance and growth. The results reveal a significant and asymmetric relationship between life insurance penetration and GDP growth. Specifically, a 1% increase in life insurance penetration is associated with a 0.3% increase in GDP growth in the long run, while a 1% decrease shows no significant effect. For non-life insurance, both increases and decreases demonstrate significant but asymmetric impacts on growth. A 1% increase in non-life insurance penetration corresponds to a 0.2% increase in GDP growth, whereas a 1% decrease is linked to a 0.15% decrease in GDP growth. These findings support the ‘supply-leading’ hypothesis, suggesting that the insurance sector can play a leading role in promoting economic growth. The results provide new quantitative insights into the relationship between insurance and economic growth in Saudi Arabia, offering valuable implications for policymakers. It is suggested that the insurance industry can be leveraged to foster economic growth by promoting life insurance and managing the asymmetric impacts of non-life insurance.

With digital transformation becoming a key focus for businesses globally, the Indonesian life insurance industry faces increasing pressure to adopt digital strategies to remain competitive. This study examines the relationships between technology adoption readiness, digital enablement, and life insurance performance and explores the moderating effect of innovation capability. A quantitative approach was employed, gathering data through a structured questionnaire distributed to senior executives from 43 life insurance companies in Indonesia. Using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) with SmartPLS, the analysis reveals that digital enablement significantly enhances life insurance performance, driven by the readiness of companies to adopt technology. However, the moderating role of innovation capability was found to be less impactful, suggesting that innovation contributes to performance but does not substantially influence the relationship between digital enablement and life insurance performance. These findings provide valuable insights for life insurance companies in Indonesia, highlighting the importance of investing in technology adoption and digital integration while continuing to develop innovation capabilities to stay competitive in a rapidly evolving digital landscape.

The insurance industry, which is an important component of the financial channel, is an essential part of the Turkish economy, and assessing the financial performance is critical for insurance companies to improve efficiency and productivity, increase competitiveness, and enhance fiscal health. The study presented a technique for assessing the financial performance of all insurance companies registered in Borsa Istanbul by implementing an integrated method that combines the Criteria Importance Through Intercriteria Correlation (CRITIC) and Proximity Indexed Value (PIV) methods. The rationale for implementing the PIV method is the lack of adequate financial studies available on the insurance companies that employed this specific model. Initially, 18 evaluation criteria were defined. The CRITIC method was applied for the criteria weights, and insurance companies were ranked using PIV. Subsequently, the COPRAS, VIKOR, ARAS, and SAW Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) methodologies were applied. Performance rankings derived from PIV were compared with those obtained from other MCDM models employed. Finally, Spearman’s Rank Correlation and Kendall’s Rank Correlation Coefficient methods were applied to analyze the extent of correlations and interactions between ranking outcomes. The PIV assessment results pointed out that AGESA received the highest rank for financial performance, and AKGRT had the lowest rank. AGESA consistently received high rankings compared to all other methods examined. Nevertheless, RAYSG and AKGRT constantly ranked poorly. All deployed methods ranked AKGRT and RAYSG in the final two positions. The study’s findings underscore that ranking outcomes of PIV largely align with alternate MCDM methodologies utilized.

This study seeks to establish the influence of the Big Five personality traits, which include Openness, Neuroticism, Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, and Extraversion, on growers’ willingness to embrace crop insurance schemes. Furthermore, it explores the role of Attitude, Subjective Norms, and Perceived Behavioral Control, as proposed in the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), on this relationship. Using a structured questionnaire, data were collected from 412 growers of arecanut and pepper. The data were analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) via Smart-PLS 3.3. The analysis revealed that Perceived Behavioral Control (β = 0.462**), Subjective Norms (β = 0.260**), and Attitude (β = 0.115**) positively influenced growers’ behavioral intentions. Interestingly, the Big Five personality traits themselves did not have a direct effect on these intentions. Further mediation analysis demonstrated that Attitude and Subjective Norms fully mediated the effects of Extraversion (α = 0.026**, β = 0.069), Neuroticism (α = 0.019**, β = –0.016), and Openness (α = 0.024**, β = 0.069) on Behavioral Intention. However, these variables did not mediate the relationship between Agreeableness (α = 0.011, β = 0.058), Conscientiousness (α = –0.017, β = –0.080), and Behavioral Intention. Additionally, perceived behavioral control mediated the link between personality traits and intention, though this was not the case for Conscientiousness. This study contributes to the application of the TPB by incorporating the Big Five personality traits and exploring their interaction with the TPB dimensions.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a detrimental effect on the global economy, including the insurance industry. It has forced financial markets to confront a new risk directly related to the virus’s rapid spread. Therefore, the paper aims to determine possible risks or opportunities that insurance companies may encounter, considering both pre- and post-pandemic phases. For this purpose, financial data of 110 Romanian insurance companies for 2016–2022 were analyzed. The topfirme platform was used in the data collection process. Subsequently, based on statistical analysis methods, an econometric model was developed to evaluate the turnover for insurance companies in Romania. When developing the model equation, establishing dependent and independent variables based on the Altman model or the Z-model of bankruptcy prediction was considered. Thus, the findings indicate that employees are the primary factor in these businesses’ proper operation and increased profitability. It is emphasized that turnover directly depends on these variables since the number of employees is a variable around which incomes and expenses fluctuate. Turnover is affected positively or negatively depending on employee productivity and workload, which can lead to increased revenues and decreased costs, or vice versa. Accordingly, an insurance company’s HR department should resolve issues that crop up during the shift to telemedicine, enhance workers’ digital skills, provide them with moral and psychological support, and foster stable working relationships. It should also implement strategies to sustain and raise employee engagement levels, fortify control measures, and alter internal communications.

Blockchain technology can drastically reduce the costs associated with claim verification in the insurance and Takaful industry while increasing trust among involved parties through smart contracts and a shared source of truth. This study examines whether Takaful operators and insurance companies apply blockchain differently and explores the benefits of blockchain technology and smart contracts for both. It conducts a systematic review of relevant literature and a meta-analysis to assess how current studies describe and combine cases as evidence. The results indicate that Takaful and insurance companies that use smart contracts experience a reduction in fraudulent claims, increased transparency, enhanced connections between involved parties, and automation of claim payments with minimal human intervention. The analysis reveals no difference in the application of blockchain technology between the two types of operators, despite the distinct operating contracts of Takaful and conventional insurance.

This research paper examines the relationship selling impact on sales effectiveness in Health Insurance from an agent’s perspective. The study analyzed primary data by personal interaction with respondents in the Karnataka region, India, and used descriptive research with stratified sampling. A sample size of 407 health insurance agents was selected for this study from the age group between 18 to 60 years from diverse backgrounds. The research methodology involves constructing a regression model using the SPSS tool to analyze the data. The findings show that personal interaction determinants have positive and statistically significant effects on sales effectiveness, however, customer dependency and self-discipline have negative and statistically significant impacts on sales effectiveness. The results support the models’ reliability and a good measure of construct validity. Variables like Interaction Intensity (II) and Customer Dependence (CD) (0.632), Personal Interaction (PI) and Customer Dependence (CD) (0.464), and Customer Oriented Selling (COS) and Cooperative Intentions (CI) (0.523) have relatively strong positive correlations, suggesting these pairs move together in the same direction. This implies that an agent’s personal resources can affect their ability to convert relationship-selling behavior to tangible sales results that can guide sales force recruitment and training. Similarly, the organizing and structuring of the sales force can be informed by the findings that customer relationship characteristics influence salespeople’s ability to translate relationship selling behavior into sales effectiveness.