From readiness to excellence: The role of digital enablement and innovation in life insurance performance

From a global perspective, the business environment has become highly dynamic, unpredictable, and competitive due to external forces – mostly technology – that generate change. The aim of this study is to investigate the influence of digital technologies on South African business sectors. The sample includes small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the KwaZulu-Natal province. Being qualitative by design, the study used semi-structured interviews for data collection, with eight interviews in the Durban area. SME managers were purposefully selected as participants based on their management positions in the business/company and that they oversee the business operation and understand the influence of digital transformation in the business. The interviews were then transcribed after data collection to determine any recurring themes. In the effectiveness of digital transformation, the study identified themes such as “gaining exposure” and “gaining effective sales figures” as a result of implementing digital transformation, which was indicated by six of eight participants. The findings showed that digital transformation significantly affects building customer relationships and ensuring easy accessibility of the business. The results further indicate online selling and digital marketing as the leading digital platforms successfully implemented by most South African SMEs. Lastly, the study revealed digital maintenance and rapid changes in technology as challenging factors. Moreover, the study recommends that South African SMEs implement more available digital technologies to gain additional exposure.

It is assumed that technological progress plays a vital role in energy efficiency improvements when the effects of industrial restructuring, infrastructure, environmental challenges, and economic shocks seem more dubious. However, a limited number of studies have been conducted to examine the impact of technological innovation on countries’ energy efficiency levels. This study aims to explore the relationship between energy efficiency, technological innovation, and economic growth in 30 European countries by utilizing data from 2012 to 2020. To this end, a two-stage analysis is carried out. The first step involves estimating the total factor energy efficiency (TFEE) by the countries to illustrate the effects of energy parameters on economic growth and the environment, and technological innovation (TI) to estimate the innovation capability of each country by using data envelopment analysis (DEA) methodology. The second step includes a panel regression model to explore how technological innovation affects energy efficiency, considering the degree of government intervention, industrial structure, infrastructure, and economic openness.
The results indicate that the bottom-15 countries, whose TFEE scores were the lowest, are mainly countries of Central and Eastern Europe. Regarding the countries’ technological capability, the results were similar, but the score was lower than the TFEE.
Moreover, the regression analysis shows that a one percent increase in innovation activity contributes to an increase in energy efficiency by 0.27 percent. Hence, it confirms the notion of a positive impact of new technology on energy efficiency.

Acknowledgments
The study is supported by the grant from the Research Based Innovation “SFI Marine Operation in Virtual Environment (SFI-MOVE)” (Project No. 237929) in Norway.

The paper analyzes the impact of retail transformation on the consumers’ expectations and behavior in the electronic environment and identifies the main directions of digitalization of the marketing activities of domestic retail enterprises at each stage of the purchasing decision-making process. It also systematizes the consumer expectations in the context of the digital transformation of retail, which made it possible to establish the importance of managing customer acquisition for retailers and demonstrated how technology changes the way customers purchase. The results of an online study of the impact of marketing efforts in retail outlets to highlight digital transformation tools at every stage of consumer decision-making by consumers are presented and the main directions of digitalization of marketing activities of domestic retail enterprises are summarized. The legitimacy of taking consumer expectations into account when determining the impact on the business model of retailers, returning it to the plane of mobility, digitalizing the purchase process, and the integration of digital and physical trading, has been proven. It is suggested to consider the main areas of digital transformation as digital interaction with customers, innovation in the development of products and services, distribution channels, marketing and sales; digital implementation, risk optimization, strengthening corporate control, intelligent information management and customer service, managing customer and contact center experience, customer relationship management. This made it possible to specify promising areas of digital transformation in the retail industry, in particular, optimizing human resources, creating new ways of cooperation, attracting labor and assistance (flexible work, social cooperation, corporate cooperation, integrated communications), as well as employee training for the retail industry.