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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 explores the mediating effects of relationship marketing orientation (RMO) and service quality orientation (SQO) on market orientation, selling orientation, and policyholder retention in non-life insurance services. Additionally, it offers important recommendations for non-life insurers in Taiwan for policy development and improving policyholder retention.

Data were collected from a sample of policyholders belonging to the top five non-life insurance companies in Taiwan. The data were then analyzed with structural equation modeling.

RMO and SQO mediate the effects of the salesperson’s market orientation on policyholder retention. Thus, RMO and SQO are key factors influencing policyholder retention. Consequently, high levels of market orientation should be maintained to increase RMO and SQO, strengthening the retention rate of non-life insurance policyholders.

The main limitation of this study is its cross-sectional nature. In the future, researchers should collect data from other countries and service industries (e.g. banks, securities, and other financial institutions), expand to different insurance contexts (e.g. life insurance), and conduct longitudinal studies or experimental research.

The results of this study can act as a guide for providers of non-life insurance services. Based on the research results, we recommend decision-makers pay increased attention to increasing policyholder retention rates by strengthening their firm’s RMO and SQO.

Few studies have investigated the relationships among market orientation, selling orientation, RMO, SQO, and policyholder retention in non-life insurance services within Asian contexts in general and specifically in Taiwan. Thus, this study’s theoretical contributions, managerial implications (especially for decision-makers), and the proposed future research directions represent timely and valuable additions to the literature.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of Islamic beliefs in moderating consumers’ attitudes and purchase intentions of conventional and Islamic life insurance. Second, it investigates the role of Islamic beliefs in moderating the relationship between the attitude toward conventional/Islamic life insurance and purchase intentions of these types of services.

A questionnaire was administered online in a Muslim liberal country where both types of insurance are offered. Based on a total sample of 207 responses, ANOVA tests and a structural Equation Modeling were used to test the research hypotheses.

Results show that: the higher (lower) the Islamic beliefs of individuals, the less (more) favorable their attitude will be toward conventional life insurance and the more (less) favorable their attitude will be toward Islamic life insurance; the higher (lower) the Islamic beliefs of individuals, the weaker (stronger) their purchase intentions for conventional life insurance will be and the stronger (weaker) their purchase intentions for Islamic life insurance will be; and Islamic beliefs moderate the relationships between attitudes and purchase intentions of life insurance.

Because they play a significant role in moderating consumers’ attitudes and purchase intentions of conventional and Islamic life insurance, Islamic beliefs can be used as a meaningful criterion to segment the life insurance markets in (less conservative) Muslim countries. This would help insurance companies to better target their services. In a case where two segments coexist (i.e. individuals scoring low on Islamic beliefs vs individuals scoring high on Islamic beliefs), insurers should weigh different strategic options by targeting one of the two segments or both of them. Perhaps the main issue occurs when an insurer attempts to target both segments. In this case, managers should be aware of the confusion that they might create in the mind of their clients (or potential clients). Concurrently offering two types of life insurance (conventional and Islamic) may put the insurers’ credibility at stake.

Earlier studies report that in Muslim countries, the demand for life insurance is weak or negatively correlated with religion. The majority of these studies consider religion as a macro indicator (i.e. at the country level) when explaining the demand for such services. The present study further clarifies the nature of the relationship between religion and the demand for life insurance by: examining the role of Islamic beliefs (as one of the main dimensions of Muslims’ religiosity) at the micro level (i.e. at the consumer level); and investigating the moderating role of Islamic beliefs in explaining attitudes and purchase intentions of conventional and Islamic life insurance in a less conservative Muslim country.

The methodology of mobile commerce as a significant application for both enterprises and customers are becoming crucial, but few studies discuss the usage attitude toward and customer satisfaction with mobile application (app) services in the life insurance industry. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of attitude toward using life insurers’ mobile app services on customer satisfaction.

The study is based on a questionnaire survey of 538 respondents in Taiwan. The data are analyzed through ANOVA, multiple regression, and path analysis.

The results indicate that all variables significantly and positively affected usage attitude. Among them, compatibility had the most significant influence. In addition, consumers’ perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use positively affected customer satisfaction. Furthermore, the path analysis result demonstrates that usage attitude is the most significant factor for customer satisfaction, and the second-most important factor is the cognition of compatibility’s indirect effect on usage attitude.

The paper extends our understanding of the insured’s usage attitude toward and satisfaction with life insurers’ app services by integrating the technology acceptance model and innovation diffusion theory. The results have practical implications for reinforcing customer relationship management and contribute to fulfilling the need for marketing evidence in life insurance.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the human resource factors (rewards, training teamwork and empowerment) that affect service recovery performance (SRP) of customer service employees in life insurances companies. Life insurances industries in Malaysia are facing stiff competitions due to growing consumerism, changing consumer choices and expectations. SRP is very important aspect in the insurances firms toward retaining the customer and one of the key competitive advantages for sustainability and adding value to the organization in the future.

The data obtained from 350 customer service employees based on convenience sampling were analyzed using regression and hierarchical analysis.

There are two factors, namely, empowerment and training, affecting the SRP. The employment status moderated the relationship between reward and SRP. The limitations of this study have been noted and further research suggestions are also included that are very important for SRP.

This study has added knowledge regarding the factors that affect SRP, in general, and precisely in life insurance industries in Malaysian context.

Consumer behavior, in the context of general insurance, is worth exploring to formulate growth strategies for insurance sector in India in light of the proposed structural changes. Indian consumers attract global players due to untapped potential and favorable policy measures initiated for higher foreign direct investments. The purpose of this paper is to understand the prevailing level of service quality as perceived by insurance customers in India in the presence of certain contextual antecedents and moderators.

Perceptions about constructs like customer risk dispositions, awareness, past experiences, customer involvement, choice overload, service quality and satisfaction of 256 customers were collected using a questionnaire survey. A variance-based structural equation modeling helped to identify significant linkages among the constructs.

In order to assess service quality levels, a 15-item scale having the infrastructure, employees, agents and product dimensions was found valid and reliable. Choice overload and customer involvement were found to moderate the influence of antecedents and service quality, respectively. The influence of choice overload on quality perceptions is insignificant. The study concludes that the existing risk beliefs are insufficient, and experiences have less predictive contribution to quality perceptions.

Theoretically, this study examined the process of satisfaction development from service quality perceptions. This study offers insights for developing theories to portray future consumer behavior where more dependence of self-service technologies is expected to dominate service delivery mechanisms in insurance. The study informs that general insurance customers in India prefer more diversified products, more customer-centric employees/agents and better technical quality.

The findings of this study contribute to the understanding of the prevailing insurance consumer behavior in the general insurance sector of India and help insurance service providers in streamlining their strategies for better insurance penetration and reduced lapse rate.

This study helps in understanding the emerging trends in general insurance buying behavior in India.

Service innovation has been one of the essential elements to meet the customers’ requirements, but few studies discuss service innovation regarding behavioral intention in the insurance industry. This paper aims to investigate the effects of service innovation on customer behavioral intention and examines the role of word-of-mouth (WOM) and corporate social responsibility (CSR).

This paper used a survey to assess consumer behavioral intention regarding service innovation activities from life insurance. Questionnaires were administered to consumers who have purchased life insurance in Taiwan and the survey questions were tested through factor analysis. An analysis of multiple and hierarchical regression was performed to test the hypotheses.

The empirical results demonstrate that life insurance service innovation has a significantly positive influence on WOM and behavioral intention. Additionally, WOM has a partially mediating effect between service innovation and behavioral intention. Furthermore, the study indicates that CSR has a moderating effect on the relationship between service innovation and behavioral intentions.

Considering the uniqueness of this study in the context of Taiwan, the research draws on signaling theory as the framework to explore service innovation and the impact of social responsibility on consumer behavioral intentions in the Taiwanese insurance industry. Additionally, the results can be considered a service marketing strategy and are applicable to the financial service industry in some developing Asian countries

Digital technology is revolutionizing insurance distribution allowing the insurer companies to reach customers via multichannel. The aim of this study is to segment potential customers of life insurance based on their information search, purchasing channels and personal characteristics in the digital environment.

The study uses cross-sectional research survey. In total, 422 questionnaires were collected through a convenience sample of the Romanian population. The data was segmented based on consumer information touchpoints (online vs offline), purchase channel preference (offline by a professional vs online by a standardized platform) and personal characteristics (age, marital status and children).

The channel segmentation analysis revealed that information channel preferences are the most important clustering variables, followed by purchase channel preferences, marital status, having children and age. Four distinct segments were identified: young fully offliners (23.7%), mature fully offliners (31.5%), committed online searchers (23.2%) and cross-channel onliners (21.6%).

Insurance companies should adapt their communication and distribution strategy based on multichannel segmentation and should focus on digital touchpoints with costumers.

Firstly, the paper reveals multichannel and hybrid segmentation for life insurance. Secondly, it extends the already studied retail channels with search engines and companies' websites. Thirdly, it extends the behavioural variables for channel segmentation with technology acceptance behaviour, attitude towards life insurance, knowledge about life insurance, attitude towards personal selling and quality appraisal of online information sources.

The purpose of this paper is to identify and discuss the key conceptual and empirical inter‐relationships between service encounter variables of perceived agent service quality, overall customer satisfaction and perceived value and their relationships with behavioural outcomes of repurchase, recommendation and complaint intentions in the life insurance services in India.

A total of 258 valid responses were generated from existing customers of life insurance services on the selected variables. The relationships were tested by structural equation modeling using AMOS version 4.0. The initial hypothesized model was rejected and a model was modified till acceptable fit was achieved.

The results provide empirical support for the comprehensive nature of direct and indirect effects of service quality, value perceptions and overall satisfaction on future behavioural intentions (BI). The study identifies the key agent service quality attributes of product knowledge, empathy, reliability and trust as important antecedents of favourable behavioural outcomes. Agent service quality, satisfaction and value perceptions have significant affect on recommendation intentions.

This is the first study using multivariate and composite model of inter relationship of service encounter constructs and their affect on both favourable and unfavourable BI.

The advent of the Single European Market will have a significant effect on the competitive position in EC life insurance markets. This arises not only from enhanced freedom of establishment and the freedom of services to conduct cross‐frontier trade in insurance, but also from the deregulation of insurance markets in some Community countries which allow links between banks and insurers. The development of a Single Market in life insurance is described and the opportunities and threats for insurers are examined. The alternative strategies available to insurers are evaluated, with particular attention paid to costs and benefits of bank/insurance links.