Insurers' risk management as a business process: a prospective competitive advantage or not?

Purpose - Insurance companies exist to manage the risk of others, which is why they are perceived to be competitive in risk management (RM). Considering this, we investigate how different RM capabilities make insurers effective in RM. These capabilities include understanding risk and risk management (URRM), risk identification (RI), risk assessment and analysis (RAA) and risk monitoring (RMON) activities in insurance companies. In addition, the authors probe how these capabilities can jointly yield a competitive advantage for the insurance industry under the resource-based view (RBV) and dynamic capabilities perspective (DCP). Design/methodology/approach - The authors present a latent variable RM model for the insurance industry and employ structural equation modeling (SEM) to test the hypotheses. Furthermore, the authors also conduct confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and convergent and discriminant validity analysis for model fit and invariance testing, respectively. Findings - The results show that insurers who investigated RM-related capabilities directly influence their risk management practices (RMPs). Moreover, improving these capabilities will make insurers more effective in managing the risks of others. Thus, RM as a business process will yield a competitive advantage for the insurance sector. The findings are supported by the theoretical insights presented by the RBV and DCP. Furthermore, the model also adheres to the convergent and discriminant validity cut-off values. Originality/value - To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study examining insurers' RM practices as a source of a competitive advantage. 研究目的 - 保險公司存在的目的是為其它公司或個人管理其風險；因此，保險公司在風險管理方面、被認為具有競爭能力。故此、我們擬研究不同的風險管理能力是如何能使保險公司有效地管理風險的呢？這些風險管理能力包括對風險及風險管理之了解、風險辨識、風險評估和分析，以及在保險公司內的風險監控活動。再者，我們探究這些風險管理能力如何根據資源基礎觀點及動態能力理論共同為保險業創造競爭優勢。 研究方法 - 我們為保險業展示一個潛在變項風險管理模型，並使用結構方程模型，來測試我們的假設；而且，我們為模型適配度而進行了驗證性因素分析，又為不變性檢定而進行了驗證輻合及驗證區別效度分析。 研究結果 - 研究結果顯示、若保險公司審査與風險管理相關之能力，這會直接影響其對風險管理之措施；而且，若保險公司能改善其風險管理之能力，這會使它們更有效地管理其它公司或個人的風險。因此，作為業務過程的一環、風險管理會為保險業創造競爭優勢。我們的研究結果，得到資源基礎理論及動態能力理論提供之理論見解所支持；而且，我們的模型從附驗證輻合及驗證區別效度的截止值。 研究的原創性 - 據我們所知，本研究為首個研究、去探討保險公司的風險管理措施如何為它們創造競爭優勢。