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This paper aims to compare the emergence and evolution of organizational fields through an analysis of the life insurance industries in two large emerging markets. Using institutional theory as a conceptual framework, we compare the regulatory, cognitive and normative dimensions of the life insurance industry in China and India.

The authors introduce a qualitative variation of the country institutional profile (CIP) that has been traditionally implemented as a quantitative analytical tool used to describe differences in national environments. This newly proposed methodology captures the socially embedded aspects of the phenomenon more completely than commonly employed survey-based methodology.

This analysis leads to a three-dimensional typology of constructs and themes within each national environment. These themes include the importance of regulation and protectionism, the domestic savings culture, family support structures and human capital development within the industry. The authors conclude by comparing these typologies to consider the implications for studying change in organizational fields across contexts.

As the authors reflect on the evolution of organizational fields, they demonstrate how the interplay of historical factors and new global norms results in a negotiated stance between compliance with new norms and allegiance to local interests. In terms of methodological contribution, we show how the socially embedded aspects of the examined phenomenon are explored more completely by the proposed qualitative CIP than through its quantitative variation. This approach and the analysis illustrate a complex interplay of local and global norms within a selected industry that may be missed by other research methods.

With the development of the Chinese economy and its gradually opened market, there are more and more chances for foreign business entities who want to expand their businesses in China. The insurance market is one the most attractive. However, getting the authorization for their insurance business is one problem they encounter. The purpose of this paper is to provide some different views about Chinese insurance license regulations for those who want to start their business in China.

Different from the office papers or Regulations of China, this paper is based on research interviews carried out in China (mainly in Beijing and Shanghai). The empirical methodology reveals the actual ideas and attitudes about Chinese insurance license regulations. Except that, the comparative about some issues have been carried on between Chinese insurance companies and foreign insurance companies.

The research interview reveals that it is not difficult for foreign insurers to meet the requirements of clauses of regulations. However, the attitude of Chinese insurance regulators and the culture background, and even the political opinions of the official leaders, have played a very important role in the decision of the regulatory body.

Owing to the limitation of funds and time for this interview research, the interviews were carried out mainly in Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzheng. Even most of head offices of insurance companies located in these cities, however, it cannot be said these views represented the 100 percent true opinions.

These findings cannot be said in public, while everyone can understand it. That is the value of this paper.

Our study explores friction costs in terms of competition and market structure, considering factors such as market share, industry leverage levels, industry hedging levels, number of peers, and the geographic concentration that influences reinsurance purchase in the Property and Casualty insurance industry in China. Financial factors that influence the hedging level are also included. The data are hand collected from 2008 to 2015 from the Chinese Insurance Yearbook. Using panel data analysis techniques, the results are interesting. The capital structure shows a significant negative relationship with the hedging level. Group has a negative relationship with reinsurance purchases. Assets exhibit a negative relationship with hedging levels. The hedging level has a negative relation with the individual hedging level. Insurers have less incentive to hedge because it provides less resource than leverage. The study also robustly investigates the strategic risk management separately by the financial crises.

Based on the perspective of complexity theory, the operation process of property insurance companies can be regarded as a complex dynamic nonlinear chaotic system. This paper aims to measure the operating efficiency of 29 Chinese domestic property and casualty (P&C) companies and 18 foreign-invested P&C companies from 2011 to 2017 and outline the path to achieving high-quality development.

The data were obtained from the Chinese Insurance Yearbook and China Statistical Yearbook 2012–2018. The data envelopment analysis method was used to calculate the technical efficiency of property insurance companies and fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis is used for configuration analysis of determinants affecting technical efficiency.

This paper founds the average technical efficiency of Chinese domestic P&C insurance companies was 0.914 and that of foreign-invested P&C insurance companies was 0.895. The average total factor productivity of Chinese domestic P&C insurance companies was 1.058 and that of foreign-invested P&C insurance companies was 1.051. There were three modes to improve the company’s technical efficiency, with high loss ratio and low reinsurance ratio, poor employee education and higher leverage ratio and high leverage ratio and low reinsurance ratio as the core conditions.

This study puts forward four applicable, targeted and proven ways to improve the technical efficiency of China’s P&C insurance industry. These configurations were verified by the cases of existing property insurance companies, which can provide practical references for the insurance industry.

This paper aims to examine the risks caused by recent climate change in China and their effects on the insurance industry. China has experienced more extreme events (floods, droughts and storms) in recent years than ever before, causing the insurance industry to pay increasing attention to the negative consequences of climate change.

This paper reports on the frequency and severity of extreme risks caused by climate change. It examines what Chinese insurers are doing to address climate change risks and discusses opportunities for expanding their role in providing relief against natural disasters.

Being professional risk managers, Chinese insurance companies need to identify and assess the impacts of climate change to play a more prominent role in a market offering great future opportunity.

The Chinese insurance industry has not been actively involved in the management of increasing risks due to climate change. This paper will discuss the reason for this limited involvement and the ways for the insurance industry to overcome obstacles, enabling it to capitalize on future opportunities.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the key issues and challenges in risk management and insurance in the Chinese construction industry and propose solutions to improve risk management.

The study is based on surveys which target people who have direct or relevant experience of risk management and construction insurance in China. Surveys were conducted by e‐mail, mail and fax to selected clients, contractors (project director, project managers, and contract managers/administrators), insurers, brokers, consultants, claim advisors, and academics; and e‐mails to Chinese researchers in the construction management field. Descriptive analysis is used for data analysis.

It is found that cultural considerations inhibit proper implementation of risk management in China's construction industry. It is also found that the perception and attitude of contractors play an important role in developing risk management. Accordingly, an organizational learning of a risk management model is designed and proposed as an organizational learning process through collaborative teamwork to improve risk management and create a learning organization.

The major limitation is the sample size. A much larger sample size allows comparisons among different groups of contractors, regions, etc.

This empirical research identifies the real challenge of application of risk management in China's construction industry. It proposes a realistic organizational learning model through collaborative teamwork which could help Chinese contractors to improve their risk management.

From the perspective of cause and effect, the operational processes of property insurance companies can be considered as historical events. The purpose of this study is to measure the operating efficiency of China's property insurance industry, explore the determinants that affect technical efficiency and outline the path to achieving high-quality development.

We chose 44 Chinese property insurance companies as research objects. The data were obtained from the Chinese Insurance Yearbook and China Statistical Yearbook 2015–2017. First, the data envelopment analysis (DEA) method was used to calculate the technical efficiency of property insurance companies. Then, Tobit regression and quantile regression were adopted to explore the influencing factors of technical efficiency. Finally, the fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) method was employed to summarize the path to improving the operating efficiency of property insurance companies.

The empirical results in the first stage suggested that the operation efficiency of China's property insurance industry was technically inefficient, and the scale efficiency was relatively better than the pure technical efficiency. In the second stage, we observed that the drivers for firm size, reinsurance rate, claim ratio and equity restriction were important determinants of an insurance firm's efficiency.

We also put forward four applicable, targeted and proven ways to improve the technical efficiency of property insurance companies. These configurations are verified by cases of existing property insurance companies, which can provide practical references for the insurance industry.

Our research enriches the insurance literature and efficiency methods, particularly regarding the specific paths of improving the technical efficiency. The relationship between elements and results is analyzed from a systematic perspective, and the research results are not only more consistent with what logic might imply but also more instructive for the improvement of reality.

This paper aims to investigate the effect of intellectual capital (IC) on the operating efficiency of non-life insurance firms in China.

The authors use a dynamic data envelopment analysis model called dynamic slacks-based measure (DSBM) model to estimate the operating efficiency of 32 Chinese non-life insurance firms. Using a panel data set for the period from 2006 to 2010, the authors run ordinary least squares (OLS) regressions to find the relationship between IC and efficiency performance.

The authors find that the insurers have almost monotonically decreasing efficiency for the period from 2006 to 2010. Regression results show that human capital, structural capital and relational capital are significantly and positively related to operating efficiency.

This study suggests that managers of the Chinese non-life insurers should devote attention to the investments in IC to stay sustainable.

This is the first paper to examine the impact of IC on operating efficiency in the Chinese non-life insurance industry. This study differs from prior studies in that the authors use the DSBM model proposed by Tone and Tsutsui (2010) for evaluating the operating efficiency using a dynamic process.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the efficiencies of China's foreign and domestic life insurance providers and to explore the relationship between ownership structure and the efficiencies of insurers while taking into consideration other firm attributes.

The data envelopment analysis (DEA) method is used to estimate the efficiencies of the insurers based on a panel data between 1999 and 2004.

The results indicate that the average efficiency scores for all the insurers are cyclical. Both technical and scale efficiency reached their peaks in 1999 and 2000 and gradually reduced for the rest of the period under examination until 2004 when average efficiency were improved again. The Tobit regression results show that the insurers' market power, the distribution channels used and the ownership structures may be attributed to the variation in the efficiencies.

Based on the research findings and the discussion, the study provides several recommendations for policy makers, regulators and senior executives of insurers.

The research results highlight the importance of deregulating the sector to allow a further expansion of each individual insurer or encourage mergers and acquisitions of insurers so more efficient resource utilization can be achieved through economies of scale. It also suggests that it is imperative for insurers to recruit motivated insurance agents and offer them on‐the‐job training as a part of the management strategies for gaining technical efficiency.

The paper reports the development within China's insurance industry and is one of the few studies analyzing the efficiencies of China's insurers.

This paper aims to examine the effect of product market competition on firms’ unethical behavior (FUB) in the Chinese insurance industry and to further explore the boundary conditions of the main effects. On the basis of China’s commercial foundation, the study constructs a conceptual framework of FUB by drawing from the perspective of horizontal competition.

Data were collected from 52 property insurance firms at the branch level observed over the six-year period, 2011-2016. Within this framework, market power and market concentration were used to describe product market competition at firm and industry levels, respectively. The moderating effect of market munificence was analyzed to reveal the theoretical boundaries of the main effect. By drawing upon cost–benefit analysis and social network theory, the study used negative binomial model and Poisson model to quantitatively examine the relationship.

The relationship between product market competition and FUB is curvilinear. Especially at the firm level, market power exhibits a U-shape relationship with FUB; at the industry level, market concentration exhibits a U-shape relationship with FUB. In addition, market munificence positively moderates the impact of firm’s market power on FUB, whereas, market munificence negatively moderates the impact of industrial market concentration on FUB.

This paper explored a new type of unethical behavior that concerns consumers or the third party by emphasizing horizontal competitive contexts; it also provides a better understanding of the FUB–financial performance relationship from the perspective of competition. The moderating effects suggest that when the cause of FUB is different (market power vs market concentration), firms may make opposite ethical choice. However, the sample is from a single industry; it will be fruitful to further verify these findings in other industries such as the manufacturing sector. Moreover, the definition of FUB is confined to explicit forms such as participation or collusion but there is no way to measure the implicit forms of FUB.

First, the governance of FUB should not only focus on the firms themselves, but also take into account the industrial market structure. Second, proper use of governance measures for FUB can increase firms’ benefits from “compliance with the law”, enticing firms to decrease FUB. The third, firms with weak market positions, facing fierce competition, should not be involved in FUB for short-term benefit; indeed, a low-cost strategy can be adopted as the dominant competitive strategy. While, in cases of highly concentrated market structure, firms should strive to avoid involvement in FUB through collusion with other rivals.

As it is a very common phenomenon that firms in competitive relationships may adopt FUB toward third parties or consumers, this trend has become a hot topic in the economic and social development in China. The study’s conclusions reveal that a more proactive and ambitious ethical decision is desirable for all kinds of firms; moreover, firms should make a rational choice between “short-term interest” and “long-term survival”. When firms identify the compliance of business ethics as an opportunity to differentiate themselves and perceive the benefits of decreasing FUB as outweighing the costs, the level of FUB will be inhibited, and social welfare will increase.

The primary contribution of this research resides in identifying product market competition as a previously unexplored predictor of FUB, thus revealing the dark side of product market competition. In addition, nonlinear relationships between product market competition and FUB indicate that situations of competition exert an important influence on FUB both at the firm and industry level. This paper’s conclusion provides a more meticulous theoretical explanation for FUB. This research demonstrates that the traditional ethical framework is not sufficient to explain FUB in a horizontal competitive context. Indeed, resource constraints and competitive pressures should also be considered.