IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/eurasi/v11y2021i4d10.1007_s40821-021-00189-7.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Translating technological innovation into efficiency: the case of US public P&C insurance companies

Author

Listed:
  • Davide Lanfranchi

    (Politecnico di Milano)

  • Laura Grassi

    (Politecnico di Milano)

Abstract

In recent years, Insurtech innovations, driven by technologies such as artificial intelligence and blockchain, emerged in the insurance industry, with the promise of improving efficiency. However, while the positive impact of technology on insurance companies’ efficiency is expected, literature assessing it empirically is scarce, when it comes to recent technological change. Focusing on the US public P&C insurance sector in the period 2012–2018 and relying on both nonparametric (two stage DEA) and parametric (SFA) approaches, it emerges that on average insurance companies were not able to leverage on technological innovations to improve their efficiency. On average a relative level of efficiency among companies, according to a two stage DEA model, was quite stable in time, while the SFA approach shows that the distance between efficient and less efficient firms slightly increased. Moreover, we found one very efficient firm, almost a leader of the market in terms of efficiency, and a homogeneous group of followers, indicating that there is vast scope for improvement for less efficient companies. Nevertheless, even the most efficient company impaired its efficiency over time, suggesting that neither the leader nor on average the followers properly leveraged technology to improve their efficiency. In a competitive scenario, with new players’ entrance and fierce competition, inertia may seriously affect their positioning. Academicians, managers and policymakers should carefully consider the effects that a non-improvement of efficiency following technological change may have on market structure, competition and regulations, potentially opening to further discussion on how technological innovations adoption should be facilitated.

Suggested Citation

  • Davide Lanfranchi & Laura Grassi, 2021. "Translating technological innovation into efficiency: the case of US public P&C insurance companies," Eurasian Business Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 11(4), pages 565-585, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:eurasi:v:11:y:2021:i:4:d:10.1007_s40821-021-00189-7
    DOI: 10.1007/s40821-021-00189-7
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s40821-021-00189-7
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s40821-021-00189-7?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gian Paolo Clemente & Pierpaolo Marano, 2020. "The broker model for peer-to-peer insurance: an analysis of its value," The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance - Issues and Practice, Palgrave Macmillan;The Geneva Association, vol. 45(3), pages 457-481, July.
    2. William W. Cooper & Lawrence M. Seiford & Joe Zhu (ed.), 2011. "Handbook on Data Envelopment Analysis," International Series in Operations Research and Management Science, Springer, number 978-1-4419-6151-8, March.
    3. Mary Kay Copeland & Emilyn Cabanda, 2018. "Efficiency Analysis of the U.S. Publicly Held Insurance Industry: A Two-Stage Efficiency Model," International Journal of Information Systems in the Service Sector (IJISSS), IGI Global, vol. 10(1), pages 1-15, January.
    4. Eric J. Bartelsman & Martin Falk & Eva Hagsten & Michael Polder, 2019. "Productivity, technological innovations and broadband connectivity: firm-level evidence for ten European countries," Eurasian Business Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 9(1), pages 25-48, March.
    5. Eling, Martin & Luhnen, Michael, 2010. "Efficiency in the international insurance industry: A cross-country comparison," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(7), pages 1497-1509, July.
    6. Battese, George E. & Coelli, Tim J., 1988. "Prediction of firm-level technical efficiencies with a generalized frontier production function and panel data," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 38(3), pages 387-399, July.
    7. Balboa, Marina & Gomez-Sala, Juan Carlos & Lopez-Espinosa, German, 2008. "Does the value of recommendations depend on the level of optimism? A country-based analysis," Journal of Multinational Financial Management, Elsevier, vol. 18(4), pages 405-426, October.
    8. Weiss, Mary A. & Choi, Byeongyong Paul, 2008. "State regulation and the structure, conduct, efficiency and performance of US auto insurers," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 134-156, January.
    9. Emanuel Stoeckli & Christian Dremel & Falk Uebernickel, 2018. "Exploring characteristics and transformational capabilities of InsurTech innovations to understand insurance value creation in a digital world," Electronic Markets, Springer;IIM University of St. Gallen, vol. 28(3), pages 287-305, August.
    10. Li, Haitao & Chen, Chialin & Cook, Wade D. & Zhang, Jinlong & Zhu, Joe, 2018. "Two-stage network DEA: Who is the leader?," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 15-19.
    11. Hugo Fuentes & Emili Grifell-Tatjé & Sergio Perelman, 2005. "Product Specialization, Efficiency and Productivity Change in the Spanish Insurance Industry," CREPP Working Papers 0506, Centre de Recherche en Economie Publique et de la Population (CREPP) (Research Center on Public and Population Economics) HEC-Management School, University of Liège.
    12. George E. Battese & D. S. Prasada Rao, 2002. "Technology Gap, Efficiency, and a Stochastic Metafrontier Function," International Journal of Business and Economics, School of Management Development, Feng Chia University, Taichung, Taiwan, vol. 1(2), pages 87-93, August.
    13. Hatra Voghouei & Mohammad Ali Jamali, 2018. "Determinants of government efficiency: does information technology play a role?," Eurasian Business Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 8(3), pages 285-298, September.
    14. Carlos Pestana Barros & Nazaré Barroso & Maria Rosa Borges, 2005. "Evaluating the Efficiency and Productivity of Insurance Companies with a Malmquist Index: A Case Study for Portugal," The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance - Issues and Practice, Palgrave Macmillan;The Geneva Association, vol. 30(2), pages 244-267, April.
    15. Gabriele Pellegrino & Mariacristina Piva, 2020. "Innovation, industry and firm age: are there new knowledge production functions?," Eurasian Business Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 10(1), pages 65-95, March.
    16. Martin Eling & Martin Lehmann, 2018. "The Impact of Digitalization on the Insurance Value Chain and the Insurability of Risks," The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance - Issues and Practice, Palgrave Macmillan;The Geneva Association, vol. 43(3), pages 359-396, July.
    17. Abdul Latif Alhassan & Nicholas Biekpe, 2016. "Competition and efficiency in the non-life insurance market in South Africa," Journal of Economic Studies, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 43(6), pages 882-909, November.
    18. Delhausse, B. & Fecher, F. & Perelman, S. & Pestieau, P., 1995. "Measuring productive performance in the non-life insurance industry: the case of French and Belgian markets," LIDAM Reprints CORE 1141, Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE).
    19. R. D. Banker & A. Charnes & W. W. Cooper, 1984. "Some Models for Estimating Technical and Scale Inefficiencies in Data Envelopment Analysis," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 30(9), pages 1078-1092, September.
    20. Boussofiane, A. & Dyson, R. G. & Thanassoulis, E., 1991. "Applied data envelopment analysis," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 52(1), pages 1-15, May.
    21. Klaus Schaeck & Martin Cihák, 2014. "Competition, Efficiency, and Stability in Banking," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 43(1), pages 215-241, March.
    22. Reza Hesarzadeh, 2020. "Regulatory oversight and managerial ability," Eurasian Business Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 10(4), pages 559-585, December.
    23. J. David Cummins & Giuseppe Turchetti, 1996. "Productivity and Technical Efficiency in the Italian Insurance Industry," Center for Financial Institutions Working Papers 96-10, Wharton School Center for Financial Institutions, University of Pennsylvania.
    24. Fried, Harold O. & Lovell, C. A. Knox & Schmidt, Shelton S. (ed.), 1993. "The Measurement of Productive Efficiency: Techniques and Applications," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780195072181.
    25. Ralph Sonenshine, 2020. "Merger waves: are buyers following the herd or responding to structural queues?," Eurasian Business Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 10(2), pages 287-308, June.
    26. Giacomo Damioli & Vincent Van Roy & Daniel Vertesy, 2021. "The impact of artificial intelligence on labor productivity," Eurasian Business Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 11(1), pages 1-25, March.
    27. Charnes, A. & Cooper, W. W. & Rhodes, E., 1978. "Measuring the efficiency of decision making units," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 2(6), pages 429-444, November.
    28. Simon Grima & Jonathan Spiteri & Inna Romānova, 2020. "A STEEP framework analysis of the key factors impacting the use of blockchain technology in the insurance industry," The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance - Issues and Practice, Palgrave Macmillan;The Geneva Association, vol. 45(3), pages 398-425, July.
    29. Sevgi Eda Tuzcu & Emrah Ertugay, 2020. "Is size an input in the mutual fund performance evaluation with DEA?," Eurasian Economic Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 10(4), pages 635-659, December.
    30. Michael Danquah & David Mensah Otoo & Amoah Baah†Nuakoh, 2018. "Cost efficiency of insurance firms in Ghana," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 39(2), pages 213-225, March.
    31. Robert Hauswald & Robert Marquez, 2003. "Information Technology and Financial Services Competition," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 16(3), pages 921-948, July.
    32. Serban Mogos & Alex Davis & Rui Baptista, 2021. "High and sustainable growth: persistence, volatility, and survival of high growth firms," Eurasian Business Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 11(1), pages 135-161, March.
    33. Lan Nguyen & Andrew C. Worthington, 2021. "Industry regulation, fund characteristics, and the efficiency of Australian private health insurers," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 61(1), pages 781-801, March.
    34. Hwai-Shuh Shieh & Jin-Li Hu & Yong-Ze Ang, 2020. "Efficiency of Life Insurance Companies: An Empirical Study in Mainland China and Taiwan," SAGE Open, , vol. 10(1), pages 21582440209, February.
    35. F. Fecher & D. Kessler & S. Perelman & P. Pestieau, 1993. "Productive performance of the French insurance industry," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 4(1), pages 77-93, June.
    36. Heni Boubaker & Nadia Sghaier, 2014. "How Do the Interest Rate and the Inflation Rate Affect the Non-Life Insurance Premiums ?," Working Papers 2014-282, Department of Research, Ipag Business School.
    37. Mohammad Nourani & Qian Long Kweh & Evelyn Shyamala Devadason & V.G.R. Chandran, 2020. "A decomposition analysis of managerial efficiency for the insurance companies: A data envelopment analysis approach," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 41(6), pages 885-901, September.
    38. Biener, Christian & Eling, Martin & Wirfs, Jan Hendrik, 2016. "The determinants of efficiency and productivity in the Swiss insurance industry," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 248(2), pages 703-714.
    39. Vecchiato, Riccardo, 2017. "Disruptive innovation, managerial cognition, and technology competition outcomes," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 116-128.
    40. Gustavo Ferro & Sonia León, 2018. "A Stochastic Frontier Analysis of Efficiency in Argentina’s Non-Life Insurance Market," The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance - Issues and Practice, Palgrave Macmillan;The Geneva Association, vol. 43(1), pages 158-174, January.
    41. Huang, Wei & Eling, Martin, 2013. "An efficiency comparison of the non-life insurance industry in the BRIC countries," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 226(3), pages 577-591.
    42. J. David Cummins & Xiaoying Xie, 2016. "Efficiency and Productivity in the US Property-Liability Insurance Industry: Ownership Structure, Product and Distribution Strategies," International Series in Operations Research & Management Science, in: Joe Zhu (ed.), Data Envelopment Analysis, chapter 0, pages 113-163, Springer.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Laura Grassi & Nicolas Figini & Lorenzo Fedeli, 2022. "How does a data strategy enable customer value? The case of FinTechs and traditional banks under the open finance framework," Financial Innovation, Springer;Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, vol. 8(1), pages 1-34, December.
    2. Laura Grassi, 2024. "In a world of Open Finance, are customers willing to share data? An analysis of the data-driven insurance business," Eurasian Business Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 14(3), pages 727-753, September.
    3. Qiao Guangshun, 2023. "Survival of the Fittest: The Long-run Productivity Analysis of the Listed Information Technology Companies in the US Stock Market," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment Journal, De Gruyter, vol. 17(1), pages 1-11, January.
    4. Jie Liu & Shujun Ye & Yujin Zhang & Lulu Zhang, 2023. "Research on InsurTech and the Technology Innovation Level of Insurance Enterprises," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(11), pages 1-19, May.
    5. Davide Lanfranchi & Laura Grassi, 2022. "Examining insurance companies’ use of technology for innovation," The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance - Issues and Practice, Palgrave Macmillan;The Geneva Association, vol. 47(3), pages 520-537, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kaffash, Sepideh & Azizi, Roza & Huang, Ying & Zhu, Joe, 2020. "A survey of data envelopment analysis applications in the insurance industry 1993–2018," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 284(3), pages 801-813.
    2. Gustavo Ferro & Sonia León, 2018. "A Stochastic Frontier Analysis of Efficiency in Argentina’s Non-Life Insurance Market," The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance - Issues and Practice, Palgrave Macmillan;The Geneva Association, vol. 43(1), pages 158-174, January.
    3. Jarraya, Bilel & Bouri, Abdelfettah, 2012. "Efficiency concept and investigations in insurance industry: A survey," MPRA Paper 53544, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 2013.
    4. Suvvari Anandarao & S. Raja Sethu Durai & Phanindra Goyari, 2019. "Efficiency Decomposition in two-stage Data Envelopment Analysis: An application to Life Insurance companies in India," Journal of Quantitative Economics, Springer;The Indian Econometric Society (TIES), vol. 17(2), pages 271-285, June.
    5. Reza Sanei & Farhad Hosseinzadeh lotfi & Mohammad Fallah & Farzad Movahedi Sobhani, 2022. "An Estimation of an Acceptable Efficiency Frontier Having an Optimum Resource Management Approach, with a Combination of the DEA-ANN-GA Technique (A Case Study of Branches of an Insurance Company)," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 10(23), pages 1-21, November.
    6. Wanke, Peter & Barros, Carlos Pestana, 2016. "Efficiency drivers in Brazilian insurance: A two-stage DEA meta frontier-data mining approach," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 8-22.
    7. Vintilă Alexandra & Trucmel Irina-Maria & Roman Mihai Daniel, 2022. "Measuring and Analyzing the Efficiency of Firms in the Insurance Industry Using DEA Techniques," Journal of Social and Economic Statistics, Sciendo, vol. 11(1-2), pages 59-83, December.
    8. Mahlberg, Bernhard & Url, Thomas, 2010. "Single Market effects on productivity in the German insurance industry," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(7), pages 1540-1548, July.
    9. Shuji Yao & Zhongwei Han & Dan Luo, 2010. "Performance of the Chinese Insurance Industry under Economic Reforms," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 12788.
    10. Biener, Christian & Eling, Martin & Wirfs, Jan Hendrik, 2016. "The determinants of efficiency and productivity in the Swiss insurance industry," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 248(2), pages 703-714.
    11. Lei Peng & Zhaotong Lian, 2021. "Diversification and efficiency of life insurers in China and India," The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance - Issues and Practice, Palgrave Macmillan;The Geneva Association, vol. 46(4), pages 710-730, October.
    12. Verspagen, Bart & Werker, Claudia, 2003. "The Invisible College of The Economics of Innovation and Technological Change," Estudios de Economia Aplicada, Estudios de Economia Aplicada, vol. 21, pages 393-419, December.
    13. Tone, Kaoru & Kweh, Qian Long & Lu, Wen-Min & Ting, Irene Wei Kiong, 2019. "Modeling investments in the dynamic network performance of insurance companies," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 237-247.
    14. Carlos Pestana Barros & Silvestre Dumbo & Peter Wanke, 2014. "Efficiency Determinants and Capacity Issues in Angolan Insurance Companies," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 82(3), pages 455-467, September.
    15. J. Cummins & Hongmin Zi, 1998. "Comparison of Frontier Efficiency Methods: An Application to the U.S. Life Insurance Industry," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 10(2), pages 131-152, October.
    16. Eling, Martin & Jia, Ruo, 2018. "Business failure, efficiency, and volatility: Evidence from the European insurance industry," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 58-76.
    17. Tao Ding & Ya Chen & Huaqing Wu & Yuqi Wei, 2018. "Centralized fixed cost and resource allocation considering technology heterogeneity: a DEA approach," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 268(1), pages 497-511, September.
    18. Ismat Ara Begum & Mohammad Jahangir Alam & Jeroen Buysse & Aymen Frija & Guido Van Huylenbroeck, 2012. "Contract farmer and poultry farm efficiency in Bangladesh: a data envelopment analysis," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(28), pages 3737-3747, October.
    19. Francisco Pedraja & Javier Salinas & Peter Smith, 1994. "La restricción de las ponderaciones en el análisis envolvente de datos: una fórmula para mejorar la evaluación de la eficiencia," Investigaciones Economicas, Fundación SEPI, vol. 18(2), pages 365-380, May.
    20. Kwaku Ohene-Asare & Jones Kofi Anyimadu Asare & Charles Turkson, 2019. "Dynamic cost productivity and economies of scale of Ghanaian insurers," The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance - Issues and Practice, Palgrave Macmillan;The Geneva Association, vol. 44(1), pages 148-177, January.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:eurasi:v:11:y:2021:i:4:d:10.1007_s40821-021-00189-7. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.