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Cognitive drivers of opportunity identification and development are important in entrepreneurship. This study examines antecedents of opportunity development among women founders of digital platform start-ups, defined as technology-mediated sites that facilitate user interactions, processing of transactions or other innovative practices. The opportunity identification and development literature framed our exploration of drivers into digital entrepreneurship among women in a middle-income economy, an area under-represented in prior research.

This research uses in-depth interview data with women founders of five digital platform start-ups in South Africa. The authors supplemented primary interviews with secondary data from a global big data site to provide context for how investors are funding women-owned start-ups in the country.

Entrepreneurs’ heightened alertness to opportunity developed from a confluence of factors such as personal values, impatience at the slow pace of change in post-Apartheid South Africa, corporate ennui and building for-profit business models driven by social purpose. Respondents had multiple identities, including gender, culture and generation that influenced their development as entrepreneurs and their adoption of digital platform strategy for start-up ventures.

Multiple factors influence women entrepreneurs during the opportunity identification and development process as they enact the creation of digital platform start-ups. The authors recommend additional research linking opportunity identification and development to gender in emerging markets.

South Africa is witnessing the emergence of women-owned digital platform start-ups that attract risk capital investment. These entrepreneurs are university educated and use prior corporate experience to create growth-oriented companies that government should support.

The study contributes to opportunity identification theory building based on context, specifically how the concepts and strategies can inform new models that include women entrepreneurs.

This article proposes a new approach to bundling for both the marketing of services and relationship marketing. Reviews the literature on both bundling and relationship marketing and puts forward a new theoretical approach. Uses the case method as a means of defending the argument and justifies its use in this specific research project. Demonstrates that collaborative relationship bundling can constitute the strategic core of a company; at least, if the firm's primary goal is to maximise the opportunities of attracting valuable customers within competitive markets. Research bears out some results from previous studies, while it finds other results to be questionable. Shows that the strategic implications of bundling are only partially explained in terms of a price or product focus, which was what previous research had concentrated on. A specific price bundle can have more strategic implications than a different specific product bundle, due to the associative power of bundling and its interactive capacity. As an essential part of this approach, a company must define bundling through an in‐depth appraisal of the actual contextual experience of the customer, rather than focusing solely on reservation prices, which is where previous literature had laid its main emphasis. Calculates the lifetime value of the average customer attracted through bundling as compared to that of the average customer in the sector studied, and thus is able to demonstrate that the customer attracted through bundling is of greater value. The case method provides an in‐depth explanation but the results it provides may not necessarily be generalised into other contexts. Develops therefore a model to identify the factors that explain the success registered in the case selected for analysis. Puts forward 11 propositions suitable for comparative application in other contexts.

The purpose of this paper is to look at the main empirical findings related to the bank‐insurance model and to outline the market practices across the world. The market dynamics underpinning the bancassurance phenomenon are analyzed alongside discussions of the various bancassurance products and bank‐insurance modes of entry.

The paper presents a brief survey of the bank‐insurance trend and provides an insight into the underlying dynamics and corporate structures of financial conglomerates.

There is an uneven success of the bancassurance phenomenon across the world. It is not clear whether re‐regulation is the cause or response to globalization, and vice versa, which in turn both shape the bancassurance arena. A number of incentives for the formation of financial conglomerates are identified. Finally, three modes of entry have been documented to reflect market realities.

The paper will be of value to those interested in financial conglomerates, banking and insurance. It is suitable for academics and practitioners alike.

Develops principles for banks that want to evaluate the distribution of life insurance as well as non‐life insurance products and identifies key factors for profitability. Analyses the costs of training personnel, the costs of computers and communication, the fixed and variable sales costs, and the costs of administration including customer service. These costs have to be covered by direct benefits in terms of commissions and indirect benefits in terms of more faithful bank customers. Then estimates the profitability of the distribution through a branch network. Develops a model to calculate the “break‐even” sales volume. Identifies five key factors: the number of branches; the number of specialists per branch; the number of customers to the bank; the cross‐selling ratio; and the reduction over time in costs of selling and administration. Gives two examples from the banking sector.

This study aims to determine the prospect of takaful funerals as an Islamic insurance product and its marketing strategy. The multicase study analyzed is the Takaful Funeral Amsterdam of Indonesia, launched in 2015, Millî Görüs of Turkey in 1970 and Arrahma of Morocco in 2006.

This study delivers an analytic hierarchy process to qualitatively and quantitatively describe Muslim customers’ priority choice and interest criteria for takaful funerals as a forerunner of Islamic insurance products.

Based on the priority choice and interest criteria, the highest priority element of takaful funeral products is market need (49.21%). The group subcriteria were dominant compared to the individual subcriteria. Product design is the second choice (20.9%), with function as the priority in subcriteria.

This indicates that the Muslim community urgently needs funeral service products that are consistent with Islamic law, which emphasizes its function. The market needs as the highest priority element implies that bundling products, affordable prices and simple design are the most suitable methods for developing takaful funeral products in Indonesia.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to discuss Islamic funerals in Indonesia, with the potential to be further developed with the increasing need of the Islamic insurance industry for new products. Previous research did not examine the PPME Al-Ikhlas Takaful Amsterdam, Millî Görüs of Turkey and Arrahma of Morocco as case studies for developing Islamic funeral insurance in Indonesia. Therefore, this gives the present study high originality.

This paper is based on a crop insurance implementation currently undergoing in Haiti. The purpose of this paper is to present the development of a program tailored to rice production in the Artibonite Valley, the challenges and opportunities that are arising from the exercise as well as pitfalls and ways to avoid them.

The Système de Financement et d’Assurances Agricoles en Haïti’s approach for the development of crop insurance is in accordance with 13 concepts considered essential in the implementation of agricultural insurance programs. The case study is presented through each of these 13 fundamental concepts.

The paper provides an insight on challenges any organization will face when implementing crop insurance for smallholder farmers. It points out notably that close collaboration of executing agencies with local partners is essential from data collection through insurance development and delivery and that all participants should receive a specific training tailored to their level of education and understanding.

Haiti is one of the poorest countries on the planet. Smallholder farmers could benefit a lot from crop insurance. It could help them stabilize their income when facing crop losses due to natural hazards or uncontrollable natural events.

This paper fulfills an identified need to share real case studies exposing challenges faced when implementing crop insurance for smallholder farmers.

The purpose of this study was to, using a case study research design informed by organizational economics theory, to examine the prospects for micro-insurance in promoting micro-credit in a low-income Anglophone country in sub-Saharan Africa – The Gambia. Two main research questions are addressed: first, what is the most appropriate micro-finance institution (MFI) organizational structure to maximize the economic benefits of micro-insurance? Second, what are the financial management and wider economic benefits of the use of micro-insurance by MFIs?

To address our two research questions, we used a semi-structured interview protocol, informed by the organizational economics literature, to interpret the data collected from our field cases. We believe that these intrinsic qualities of case study methodology are particularly apt in the present study, given the complex and emergent nature of micro-finance and micro-insurance in low-income countries such The Gambia. By focusing on case studies in a single country, we also to some extent help control for variations in business environment that could confound interpretations of field data obtained from different jurisdictions.

The results of our study suggest that the mutual (cooperative) structure of credit unions is likely to be the most cost-efficient and effective organizational form for reducing information asymmetries, agency problems and transaction costs. We also observe that micro-insurance can help reduce the risk of loan defaults, thereby increasing returns on savings and lowering the costs of debt. As such, micro-insurance stimulates the demand–supply of financial intermediation in less developed countries and so helps promote economic development. In addition to contributing new insights, our findings have potentially important commercial and public policy implications.

We acknowledge that our research is subject to inherent limitations such as the focus on three interviews in three different types of MFI organization while excluding other structural forms of organization such as government-owned/sponsored organizations. Nonetheless, the organizational characteristics of the cases examined in the present study are representative of most MFIs in developing countries. Given the prevalent hierarchical nature of corporate systems in sub-Saharan Africa, the views of the interviewees are also deemed to reflect those of other board members. Nonetheless, we acknowledge that the conclusions from our research may need to be tempered in line with these inherent limitations with the research approach adopted.

The insights obtained from our Gambia-based research could be generalized to developing countries elsewhere in sub-Saharan Africa, and indeed, other parts of the developing world. Consequently, the study could be of interest and relevance to international financiers (e.g. the World Bank), aid agencies, governments and other development organizations.

Despite its evident business and development potential, academic management research on micro-insurance, and in particular, its role in supporting micro-finance initiatives, is still very much at an embryonic stage. Our study thus seeks to fill this knowledge gap.

The purpose of this paper is to probe whether the quest for sustainability in financial social enterprise institutions leads to mission drift. Both formal and informal institutions play an important role as interventions to promote inclusion. They struggle between an explicit social mission and the implicit quest for sustainability. The debate remains on whether such organisations can achieve financial sustainability without compromising outreach.

The study uses interviews and focus group discussions in nine different hybrid organisations involved in providing different types of financial services in Swaziland.

The results suggest that smaller and informal enterprises tend to have less mission drift. Their risk mitigation and management approaches such as group liability and use of traditional governance structures are more adapted to the characteristics of the groups served. The modus operandi of larger enterprises tends to mimic mainstream lenders with risk mitigation measures that are inherently unsustainable for this type of market.

Sustainability in financial enterprises requires new contextualised models of risk management and client selection more appropriate for excluded groups. Moreover, using group lending as a measure of outreach maybe flawed. Other forms of social capital can be used to increase outreach even in the absence of group lending. The perceived trade-off between commercial gain and outreach is somewhat complex. Mission drift seems to depend on the capital structure.

The paper contributes to an infant but important debate on how sustainability can be achieved without compromising outreach in financial institutions designed to increase financial inclusion.

The supposition that the availability and cost of insurance will have an effect on house prices is often accepted as fact. However the mechanism for this supposed impact has not been clearly articulated and the hypothesis is far from proven in the UK market. Measurement of the effect of insurance is complicated by the fact that the parties are acting in the presence of incomplete information and that insurance costs can act as a proxy for other value drivers such as flood risk. Models useful in other countries cannot be applied sensibly to the UK market because of the unique properties of the UK insurance regime. Novel hypotheses are suggested for the three principal ways in which the availability and cost of insurance might influence the prospective property transfer. A method for testing one of these hypotheses is proposed using a quasi‐experimental approach with the aim of determining whether a relationship between insurance cost and house price does indeed exist.

The purpose of this paper is to understand how built environment professionals approach the valuation of flood risk in commercial property markets and whether insurance promotes mitigation in different insurance and risk management regimes, draw common conclusions and highlight opportunities to transfer learning.

An illustrative case study approach involving literature search and 72 interviews with built environment professionals, across five countries in four continents.

Common difficulties arise in availability, reliability and interpretation of risk information, and in evaluating the impact of mitigation. These factors, coupled with the heterogeneous nature of commercial property, lack of transactional data and remote investors, make valuation of risk particularly challenging in the sector. Insurance incentives for risk mitigation are somewhat effective where employed and could be further developed, however, the influence of insurance is hampered by lack of insurance penetration and underinsurance.

Further investigation of the means to improve uptake of insurance and to develop insurance incentives for mitigation is recommended.

Flood risk is inconsistently reflected in commercial property values leading to lack of mitigation and vulnerability of investments to future flooding. Improvements are needed in: access to adequate risk information; professional skills in valuing risk; guidance on valuation of flood risk; and regulation to ensure adequate consideration of risk and mitigation options.

The research addresses a global issue that threatens local, and regional economies through loss of utility, business profitability and commercial property value. It is unique in consulting professionals across international markets.