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Creating customer value in insurance markets – research perspectives and managerial relevance
Journal
International Journal of Bank Marketing
ISSN
0265-2323
Type
journal article
Date Issued
2018-09-12
Author(s)
Abstract (De)
The insurance industry is of major importance to the world economy due to the amount of collected premiums, the size of its investments, mainly in illiquid and long-term assets, and, above all, the covering of a wide range of risks. In particular, the aspect of risk coverage illustrates the societal function of insurance by carrying huge risks such as threats related to cybercrime or natural disasters.
Therefore, the insurance sector plays a crucial economic and social role for individuals, corporates as well as entire sectors and even countries. Despite its impact on people’s well-being, the insurance industry as a whole has not received ample attention in academic research. More precisely, while certain topics such as risk management and actuarial sciences are being studied thoroughly, academic research only marginally theorized a marketing and/or customer perspective of the insurance industry. As Ennew et al. (2010) stated, the field of insurance marketing lacks a clear understanding of customer behavior and customer needs. This general dearth of insurance marketing research comes as a surprise, especially because Lang (1947) already highlighted this gap in insurance research as early as 1947. In addition, Bickelhaupt (1967) provided a thorough overview of trends in insurance marketing and delineated new avenues of research for this evolving domain. Succeeding studies addressed some aspects of the calls raised by these authors as well as other research questions but mainly adopted a cross-industry or services perspective (see Robson, 2011). Thus, marketing research with an explicit focus on insurance markets remains rather scarce. The looming change of the insurance sector driven by technological and business model innovation as well as competitive and environmental forces even exacerbates the problem of a non-substantial insurance marketing research domain. Accordingly, the need of future research is highly timely.
Therefore, the insurance sector plays a crucial economic and social role for individuals, corporates as well as entire sectors and even countries. Despite its impact on people’s well-being, the insurance industry as a whole has not received ample attention in academic research. More precisely, while certain topics such as risk management and actuarial sciences are being studied thoroughly, academic research only marginally theorized a marketing and/or customer perspective of the insurance industry. As Ennew et al. (2010) stated, the field of insurance marketing lacks a clear understanding of customer behavior and customer needs. This general dearth of insurance marketing research comes as a surprise, especially because Lang (1947) already highlighted this gap in insurance research as early as 1947. In addition, Bickelhaupt (1967) provided a thorough overview of trends in insurance marketing and delineated new avenues of research for this evolving domain. Succeeding studies addressed some aspects of the calls raised by these authors as well as other research questions but mainly adopted a cross-industry or services perspective (see Robson, 2011). Thus, marketing research with an explicit focus on insurance markets remains rather scarce. The looming change of the insurance sector driven by technological and business model innovation as well as competitive and environmental forces even exacerbates the problem of a non-substantial insurance marketing research domain. Accordingly, the need of future research is highly timely.
Language
English
Keywords
Creating Customer Value
Insurance Markets
HSG Classification
contribution to scientific community
HSG Profile Area
Global Center for Customer Insight
Refereed
Yes
Publisher
Emerald
Volume
36
Number
6
Start page
1010
End page
1014
Pages
5
Subject(s)
Division(s)
Eprints ID
255002