IRANIAN JOURNAL OF INSURANCE RESEARCH (SANAAT-E-BIMEH)
Year:2017 | Volume:32 | Issue:1 (125) |Papers Count:7

In this research, influential criteria of performance measurement are identified through literature review. Expert opinion is used to select sixteen main indexes. These are grouped in a) operational, b) financial, c) the ability to fulfill obligations, and d) customer-centeredness and access to services categories based on guidelines from the professional community of Central Insurance of Iran. DEMATTLE method is used to determine the relationships between indexes and the operational category is found to be the main factor. Then using network analysis, the weight of each index is calculated. Since most of prior research has used experts' subjective judgments to rank insurance companies, there are some inconsistencies prior research and results from using objective measures. To tackle this problem, this research computes the above indexes using real data from statistical insurance yearbooks. The results determined best performing companies among 21 active insurance companies in 2012 and 2013.

The main aim of this paper is to investigate the relationship between 7 financial variables and financial strength of active insurance companies in Iran. For this reason, financial variables including “ investment performance” , “ liquidity ratio” , “ operating margin” , “ composition ratio” , “ loss ratio” , “ underwriting profit” , and “ size of the insurance company” are chosen. The investigation is done from 2011 to 2014. From the population of all active insurance companies, 17 companies are selected by screening which resulted in 68 company-year observations. The results using panel data estimation shows that except for “ composition ratio” , other financial variables have significant relationships with the financial solvency margin. The above financial indicators explain 83. 24 percent of variation in financial solvency margin. Thus, according to the research results, there is a significant relationship between financial solvency and 6 financial variables.

The purpose of this study is to assess the existence of adverse selection in Life Insurance Market in Iran using demographic, social, and economic factors as well as other factors affecting risk level of people using Household Expenditure and Income Survey data in Iran. This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of independent variables including age, gender, education, marital status, job status, family size, income status, investment level, future perspective of the person (having pension insurance and accident insurance) and future health of the person on the probability of demanding life insurance. In the second part of the study, the dependent variable is categorized in three groups based on method of life insurance payment in insured and uninsured households. Ordered Logit is estimated but since the parallel regression lines assumption is violated generalized Logit Model is used to assess the marginal effects. Evaluation of the model coefficients indicates that age and high risk jobs concur with the existence of adverse selection in the life insurance market while other variables such as education, tobacco use, sport and religious expenses, treatment expenditures and income reduce adverse selection in life insurance market.

Due to development of different activities in cyberspace and using electronic means in commerce, unprecedented risks have emerged that affect privacy of individuals and the business environment. This paper discusses “ liability insurance and losses in the cyberspace” using comparative studies and evaluating the needs of Iran information technology sector. We propose a variety of cyber insurance that might be suitable for Iran and discuss their general conditions.

With the saturation of markets, the organizations have found that retaining customers-especially valuable customers-should be at the center of their management strategies because the cost of attracting new customers is more than the cost of retaining existing ones. The insurance industry is no exception and because of low switching costs is faced with customer churn. This study examines the impact of length of relationship, time of purchase, frequency of purchase, monetary value, profitability and group of purchased products on the valuation of customers. To do this, a survey is used to elicit expert opinions on the effective variables in the valuation of customers. Results indicate that the variables of purchase frequency, length of relationship and the number of groups of purchased products are most important in valuation of customers from the perspective of experts. Then, we develop a model of customer churn to determine the factors that affect high value customers’ churn. Using different methods (neural network, decision tree, logistic regression and support vector machine), predictive models are built and their accuracy is evaluated. The results show that C5. 0 decision tree model has a higher accuracy and precision than other models in churn prediction.

The aim of this study is to examine the effect of authentic leadership on achieving competitive advantage through employees' psychological empowerment in insurance companies in Ilam province. We surveyed 584 employees working in insurance companies in Ilam province. The consistency of the questionnaire is approved by experts. We use structural equations modeling and PLS software to study the research question. Findings indicate that authentic leadership has a significant effect on competitive advantage. Furthermore, the study shows that authentic leadership has a significant effect through employees' psychological empowerment on competitive advantage in insurance companies.