Philipp Hendrik Steiner

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to show antecedents of customers’ information disclosure in the insurance industry and demonstrate central levers that foster customers’ information disclosure to companies in the insurance sector. Design/methodology/approach A conceptual model is presented, which is empirically tested with 3,494 insurance customers from ten counties with structural equation modelling and multi-group analysis. Findings Customer value in the insurance industry consists of three factors (customer value provided by the company, the agent, and the product) and affects information disclosure directly and indirectly (via satisfaction and trust). Research limitations/implications Antecedents of customers’ information disclosure in the insurance industry were identified. Moreover, the authors show that, in line with resource exchange theory, customers are willing to disclose personal and behavioral data to an insurance company in exchange for lower premiums or additional services. Practical implications Customers expect benefits in exchange for their personal data. In combination with new technologies (e.g. smartphones or wearables), companies can offer tailored products to their customers and can create a win -win situation for customers as well as insurance companies. Originality/value The paper identifies the antecedents of customers’ information disclosure in the insurance industry with a conceptual model. This model is tested in ten countries and offers insights in established (e.g. USA) as well as emergent markets (e.g. Brazil).

Social Media (SM) have attracted considerable research Attention in the last decade. In this paper, we investigate whether SM influence consumer's choice of the purchase channel. Our model suggest that a high level of consumer identification with the brand using SM increases the likelihood of consumers' choice of the purchase channel - mediated by the consumers' perceptions of the channel. An experimental study and a large scale survey Support our model.The paper offers practical insights as well as useful theoretical implications.

Fierce global competition urges the requirement for companies to excel. As an effective strategic rationale, the customer value (CV) concept has been considered by researchers and practitioners alike. In this paper we relate the perceived customer value anticipation (CVA) to loyalty and favorable word-of-mouth (WOM) in an international service environment. Further, we investigate the process by mediation analysis, finding cognitive and conative loyalty as pivotal constructs. By including power distance (PD) as a moderator we delineate the effect of cross-cultural differences regarding our proposed framework. We find PD amplifying the indirect effect of CVA on WOM through the loyalty constructs.

In respect of an increased global competition the customer value (CV) concept has been considered as an effective strategic rationale by researchers and practitioners alike. However, neither its theoretical conceptualization nor its practical implementation has been unambiguously defined. In this paper we propose a CV framework and study the effect of perceived customer value anticipation (CVA) on word-of-mouth (WOM) mediated by cognitive and conative loyalty. By including the construct power distance as a moderator we delineate the effect of cross-cultural differences regarding our proposed framework. To collect the necessary data, insurance customers from 17 countries have been surveyed.

Two research areas that have attracted considerable attention in recent marketing research are sustainability and social media. Our approach combines these two areas by developing and testing a conceptual framework that relies on social identity theory. First, we suggest an influence of environmental-consciousness and perceived corporate social responsibility. Second, we analyze the effects of perceived corporate social responsibility on the consumers' intention to share experiences. Finally, we examine the influence of Internet usage and the number of used social media channels on intention to share. The proposed structural equation model is mostly supported by empirical data we gathered through a consumer survey conducted in four countries. The paper offers useful insights for managers to handle social media channels.