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The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of leverage on the financial performance of general insurance companies in Malaysia, and investigate whether the leverage‐performance relationship is a function of or contingent on the extent of product diversification.

The sample consisted of the entire population of authorized general insurance companies operating during the period from 2006 to 2009 in Malaysia. A total of 94 observations were analysed. All the data used were sourced from the Malaysian Central Bank's (BNM) database.

It is found that leverage is negatively associated with firm performance. However, there is a significant interaction effect between leverage and product diversity on firm performance. The finding indicates that leverage could be beneficial or detrimental to the financial performance of general insurance firms, contingent on the extent of product diversity of the firm.

As the scope of study is limited to the general insurance industry and the sample size is small, the findings of the study must be interpreted with caution and the results may not be generalizable to the life insurance sector or other industry.

Findings of prior empirical studies on leverage‐performance relationship and effect of insurance product diversification are rather mixed and inconclusive. Based on analysis of a single insurance (general) sector that is highly regulated, the paper provides empirical evidence that the benefits of product diversification strategy are contingent on level of the firm's leverage. The paper hence, enhances understanding and contributes to the existing literature on impact of leverage, product diversification on performance of the highly regulated general insurance firms in a developing country.

Purpose: In addition to the liberalisation policy, big data has revolutionised the level of awareness among customers about the quality and prices of insurance products. The rationale behind this study is to underline the issues in managing product portfolios in a disruptive environment, where a sudden and unexpected situation like COVID-19 pandemic is going to challenge the traditional models and insurance covers of organisations as well as individuals.

Methodology: The study is based on secondary data. The scope of the study will only be confined to the top two general insurance companies in India based on year of registration and market share to compare their product portfolios during pre- and post-liberalisation periods ranging from 1985–1986 to 2000–2001 and 2001–2002 to 2018–2019, respectively.

Findings: There is a lack of a balanced product portfolio for fulfilling the varying needs of customers. The insurance companies needed to set up different portfolios and should provide separate covers for natural catastrophes such as floods, earthquakes, landslides, tsunami, and the occurrence of new pandemics like COVID-19.

Significance: The study highlights that the outbreak of COVID-19 and similar pandemics or global emergencies need special preparation from the insurance sector.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the efficiency analysis of the Indian general insurance sector using data envelopment analysis (DEA) and subsequently assess the impact (if any) of the global slowdown on the performance of the allied sector.

The paper aims to analyze the operating performance of 12 general insurance companies in India between 2006-2007 and 2009-2010 using DEA based on secondary data collected from Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority Annual Reports.

Findings clearly indicate that the global economic slowdown has severely affected the performance of the private sector companies; while the public sector companies exhibited relatively lesser variation in performance levels.

The methodology employed in the study estimates relative efficiencies without assuming any functional form; as a result the proper comparison of input utilized with the output produced is not possible. Several other tools like Malmquist Index and two-stage procedure have not been used.

The study brings into light the operating characteristics and efficiencies of the Indian general insurance sector during the global slowdown and therefore holds practical value for policy makers and practitioners as well as for the decision makers of the firms employed in the study.

In this paper, we aim to assess insurance demand across selected Asian and OECD countries during the period of the global financial crisis.

We collected data from 55 emerging Asian and OECD countries during the period of the global financial crisis. Our methodology relies on panel regressions. Separate models are run for the Asia/OECD economies and a follow-up distinction between high/low-income regions is also made.

We find that global financial crisis affects negatively the general insurance demand particularly in high-income region. Higher dependency ratio in Asia tends to decrease insurance demand, whereas education in case of Asia positively influences insurance demand indicating that higher literacy rate can be helpful to capture the potential customers. Our results further reveal that life insurance is an important driver for insurance demand in OECD countries, whereas general insurance demand is higher in the Asian economies.

A limitation of this study is that data sets employed do not differentiate between different life and general insurance products.

This study is helpful for regulators, policymakers and insurance providers to evaluate, assess and monitor insurance demand in relevant countries.

This is one of the pioneering studies that have assessed insurance demand among emerging Asian and OECD countries during the period of the global financial crisis.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-08-2019-0523

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.

Investigates the differences in protocols between arbitral tribunals and courts, with particular emphasis on US, Greek and English law. Gives examples of each country and its way of using the law in specific circumstances, and shows the variations therein. Sums up that arbitration is much the better way to gok as it avoids delays and expenses, plus the vexation/frustration of normal litigation. Concludes that the US and Greek constitutions and common law tradition in England appear to allow involved parties to choose their own judge, who can thus be an arbitrator. Discusses e‐commerce and speculates on this for the future.

Deregulation, advances in enabling technology, and aggressive competition from new suppliers, including banks, are causing more and more traditional insurance companies to revise the way in which product development is undertaken. A study of ten companies offering life insurance and ten companies offering general insurance in Britain shows that a few of them are now putting into place amended managerial systems. The marketing function is undergoing changes in responsibilities in all these companies. While most companies have key managers who have visions of how markets can be reshaped to give distinct competitive advantages, effecting such changes within existing operating constraints poses major challenges.

The objective of writing this case study is to allow management students to engage with the complexities of mergers and acquisitions (M&As) in the insurance sector in an emerging economy like India. Upon completion of this case study, the students will be able to critically evaluate the business environment of the insurance sector of a developing economy like India, analyse the impact of M&As on the insurance industry of India, appraise the post-merger consequences and strategies to deal with these consequences, assess the applicability of market power and growth theories in the context of M&As and develop a strategic action plan for handling post-merger challenges.

On 3 September 2021, the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) approved the “Scheme” related to the merger of the non-life insurance division of Bharti AXA General Insurance Company Limited (“Bharti AXA”) with ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company Limited (“ICICI Lombard”). Earlier, on 21 August 2020, the boards of the companies had approved entering into definitive agreements through a scheme of arrangement. The merger received approvals from different regulatory bodies as mandated (Gandhi et al., 2023). Bhargav Dasgupta, managing director and Chief Executive Officer of ICICI Lombard, stated, “This is a landmark step in the journey of ICICI Lombard, and we are confident that this transaction would be value accretive for our shareholders” (FE Bureau, 2020). However, the merger posed a dilemma for Dasgupta and the management regarding crop insurance owing to its impact on profitability. Crop insurance historically had high claim ratios nearing 135% for ICICI Lombard for financial year 2018. The company ceased to underwrite this product from 2019 onwards (TNN, 2019). However, ICICI Lombard had to fulfil the three-year commitment made by Bharti AXA to the state governments of Maharashtra and Karnataka towards crop insurance. It was a scheme initiated by the Government of India, covering farmers against losses due to cyclonic rains, rainfall deficits and other unforeseen calamities. Dasgupta faced a challenge in managing the interests of the farmers and the company’s shareholders while balancing profitability, which had already been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. This case study delves into post-merger complexities in the financial sector non-life insurance industry in emerging countries like India.

This case study is suitable for undergraduate and post-graduate management students and executives from the insurance industry.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 11: Strategy.

A primitive form of marine insurance existed in very early times in what are known as contracts of bottomry or respondentia. This was an arrangement by which the owners of ships borrowed money at a high rate of interest and did not repay the loan if the ship was lost. This was also extended to other property, so that a rudimentary form of burglary insurance can be traced in the distant past. Loans of this kind were transacted in ancient Babylon, as is shown in the Code of Hammurabi, c. 2025 B.C. Contracts of bottomry were prohibited by a decree of Pope Gregory IX in 1234 on the grounds that they were usurious, and some authorities think that it was at this point that insurance in its true sense developed. In 1310 there existed at Bruges a ‘Chamber of Assurances’ for the insurance of merchandise against marine and other risks.

This study aims to identify the internal and external factors affecting the financial performance of general takaful companies operating in Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, UAE, Qatar and Pakistan, using an unbalanced panel data set consisting of 53 companies.

Data were hand-collected from the official financial reports of takaful companies. Two performance measures, namely, net investment income and investment yield, are used to capture the different aspects of the takaful investment operations. Based on relevant theory and literature, these measures are related to three economic variables, namely, GDP per capita, equity returns and interest rate, and four company-specific variables, namely, company size, gross contributions, retakaful dependence and liquidity. An ordinary least squares regression model, fixed-effects model and random-effects model are estimated for both performance measures.

The study finds that company size, liquidity, retakaful dependence, GDP per capita, equity returns and interest rate are statistically significant determinants of the financial performance; company size, GDP per capita, equity returns and interest rate are positively related to performance, whereas liquidity and retakaful dependence are negatively related to performance.

In the takaful literature, studies have been directed to almost every aspect of the Shariah law governing takaful. Yet, the empirical evidence on the financial performance of global takaful is scarce. Hence, there are several aspects where this paper extends prior research and contributes to the takaful literature.