Investigating the competitiveness of insurance companies in Gilan province in the form of a causal model

Academic Thesis for Master's Degree

Field: Business Management - Insurance Management Orientation

Abstract

       In the age of globalization, competitiveness is an important issue among policymakers and is considered a means to achieve favorable economic growth and sustainable development. Therefore, the goal of the industries of competitiveness is to achieve a privileged position in terms of performance in the market. The key to this problem is to examine and measure the factors affecting competitiveness. The insurance industry is one of the pillars of economic activities that guarantees the health and survival of economic movements. Therefore, its inappropriate performance will not only affect its internal structure, but will also leave extensive side effects in other markets of the country.

The purpose of this research is to measure the relationship between each of the environmental factors, internal organizational factors and factors that create perceived value on the competitiveness of insurance companies at the level of Gilan province. This research is applied in terms of purpose and in terms of data collection method it is descriptive-survey type and using questionnaire tool. In this research, to explain the conceptual model, with the help of structural equation modeling, the relationship between indicators and factors affecting competitiveness (environmental factors, internal organizational factors, and perceptual value creation factors) was investigated. Research data was collected at the level of insurance companies based in Gilan province and from a sample of 137 insurance experts and employees, and Lisrel software was used for analysis. The results of the research show that the perceptual value creation factor, environmental factor and internal organizational factor have a significant relationship with competitiveness in insurance companies, among which the perceptual value creation factor is in the first order of importance and its influence on competitiveness is 0.76, and the environmental factors with an influence of 0.65 are in the second order and the internal organizational factor is in the third priority with an influence of 0.53.

Key words:

    Competitiveness, structural equation modeling, confirmatory factor analysis, insurance companies

In today's world, increasing the standard of living and welfare of the people of a country depends on the level of competitiveness of companies and economic enterprises that operate in that country. The competitiveness of the industry and trade sector is the lever of the economic growth of the countries of the world, both developed and developing. (Mehrgan, 1387, p. 6)

The investigations have shown that companies or production enterprises that can use the available resources (capital, labor and technology) in an optimal way and establish the most appropriate relationships with the networks of suppliers, buyers and even their competitors can benefit from competitive advantages in the sale of their goods and services. Anyway, in the economic systems ruling the world today, companies are able to survive only by increasing the level of competition and improving the quality of their activities. In this century, economic activities have been formed in such a way that its continuity is severely affected without the support of insurance. The insurance industry, with a large pool of human resources and a wide network of branches, agencies and other insurance institutions, can play an important role in the economic development of the country. In line with the policies of Article 44 of the Constitution, measures have been taken in the business environment of the country's insurance industry, such as the transfer of government insurance to the private sector, the liberalization of insurance tariffs, and the empowerment of the insurance industry. This industry is one of the sub-sectors of the financial market that has extensive effects on other markets and must guarantee the health and survival of economic movements. (Hanifezadeh, 1389, p. 36)

Based on this, the current research tries to examine the impact of each of these factors on competitiveness and analyze it by considering the factors affecting the competitiveness of insurance companies, and by providing effective executive solutions to increase the competitive ability, it can play an important role in this field. In addition, the implementation of major development programs of the country, programs such as the country's economic, social and cultural development program, the existence of changes in the financial and economic system, the expansion of markets and the formation of intense global competition. It has put the country's insurance companies in a challenging competitive situation (Hanifezadeh, 2019, p. 42).

Today, the traditional attitudes of insurance affairs have disappeared and they have been replaced by modern attitudes based on customer orientation, which has caused insurance companies to face more severe competitive challenges.

Today, remaining and succeeding in the competitive environment among insurance companies in Iran has become a very important concern of the managers of these companies, and the more they advance in the future, the more important it becomes.

Competitiveness; Productivity, innovation, effectiveness and customer satisfaction. It means that every company can combine the available resources in the best possible way, such as capital, labor and technology, and offer customer-friendly products or suitable services to the market, it will be more successful in the competitive environment. Since competitiveness is a comparative concept that defines the ability or performance of a company or an economic enterprise in the context of supplying its goods or services to a market (Lazlo et al., 2009, p. 125). Therefore, if the roots of non-competitiveness and the factors affecting the competitiveness of insurance companies can be identified and investigated, solutions can be proposed to increase the competitiveness of these companies in the business environment of the country.

To increase the competitive power For insurance companies, knowing the factors and examining the main components of competitiveness is vital for them and requires continuous analysis of these factors in turn. If these factors are not consciously recognized, their planning, decisions and implementation will be incorrect and cause irreparable damage to the insurance company. Therefore, considering that the growth of the structure of the insurance industry in each country indicates the development of that country through the investment of insurance premiums received in order to promote the economic growth and development of the country, therefore, by improving the performance of the insurance industry through the productivity of manpower, further privatization of insurance companies and the development of insurance activities, the level of competitiveness in the country can be increased and mutually improved. The second chapter is detailed and analyzed to determine the importance of environmental factors, intra-organizational factors and perceptual value creation factors in insurance companies among the variables mentioned above. Therefore, with the business attitude that the insurance industry as one of the economic enterprises has towards the development of the competitiveness scale, this research has tried to determine the impact of key and effective factors on the competitiveness of insurance companies while paying attention to the stated problems, and using the structural equation model to examine the relationship of these variables on competitiveness, which variable can have the greatest possible impact on the competitiveness of insurance companies?

1-2 The Importance and Necessity of Research

The process of globalization, rapid and fundamental technological advances, new developments in the field of information technology, increasing rapid changes in consumption and demand patterns, energy resources, lack of resources and their high costs are the challenges that various companies and industries are facing in the field of trade and economic activities, and their survival depends on correct and timely decision making against these changes. Meanwhile, the process of globalization and the expansion of consumer markets, as well as the increase in the number of competitors and the intensity of competition, have given importance to concepts such as competitiveness. The existence of these continuous changes has intensified the competition between organizations in the field of business. (Zare, 2019, p. 23)