2005 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
An Internet Experiment on Insurance Selling and the Innovation of Insurance Business Model
| Project/Area Number |
15330087
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
Commerce
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| Research Institution | Hitotsubashi University |
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Principal Investigator |
YONEYAMA Takau Hitotsubashi University, Graduate School of Commerce and Management, Professor, 大学院・商学研究科, 教授 (00175019)
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| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
SHIMOWADA Isao Teikyo University, Faculty of Economics, Professor, 経済学部, 教授 (10034860)
MATSUI Takeshi Hitotsubashi University, Graduate School of Commerce and Management, Associate Professor, 大学院・商学研究科, 助教授 (70323912)
YASUDA Yutaka Kyoto Sangyo University, Faculty of Science, Lecturer, 理学部, 講師 (30283899)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2003 – 2005
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| Keywords | business model / insurance / internet selling / internet experiment / distribution system / selling channel |
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| Research Abstract |
Travel agencies and stockbrokers are rapidly changed their distribution channel in Japan. It is clear for us that internet popularization is the most important cause on such a radical change. Why insurance selling channel does change milder than such a business? A possible answer is that we fail to build the better insurance business model in the internet society. Another answer is that internet business model may be suffocated by insurance regulations and business culture. Which is the better explanation?
We tried to make an internet experiment on insurance selling, in order to know the reason why the internet selling was not so popular in insurance business. The fulfillment of the experiment was very difficult for us because it is the special product under regulation. After all we met with an insurance company's approval under the condition of partly changing our selling system. Our first system, which is treated all process from collecting to the completion of insurance policy, was c
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hanged into the system which covered the activities from collecting to inquiry to insurance agents. The change is unfortunately one of the most important factors which limited the number of access from prospective customers. But in the process of this experiment, we get the knowledge on the difficulties of the internet selling of insurance products, and build the learning base on internet selling. For the present, we get the conclusions as follows ;
First, if a company sells insurance in both agency channel and internet channel, the latter cannot exercise the advantage on cost structure. Second, the complexity of insurance products retards the development of internet selling. Although this is a point many researchers stated, we understand it more seriously. However, we have any possibilities on the less complex products, for example, the cheap medical insurance directed for women which we sold on our system. Eventually Insurance product is the bundle of information, so it might adjust to the world of bit. We should tell each activity among insurance process in the world of bit from it in the world of atom. If we could build the complete business model from collecting to the end of insurance policy by digitally processing, it was possible to change the cost structure of insurance distribution channel. Less
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