Issue #1 (Volume 16 2025)

The study evaluates the influence of digital marketing on the reputation of insurance companies in Jordan, guided by the mediating role of service quality and the moderating role of brand trust. This is a relevant topic because digital engagement has become increasingly important in shaping consumer perceptions and building brand reputation in the insurance industry. The purpose is to determine how digital marketing practices influence organizational reputation through service quality. A quantitative research design was adopted with data collected from 237 employees of 21 insurance companies in Jordan. The data were analyzed using structural equation modeling with partial least squares. The results indicate that digital marketing significantly improves the reputation of insurance companies. The findings demonstrated that service quality serves as a crucial mediator, as an improvement in service quality leads to an increase in customer satisfaction and loyalty, thereby enhancing a company’s reputation. Further, brand trust moderated the relationship of digital marketing with reputation, thereby indicating that reputational benefits from digital marketing are further enhanced in firms characterized by high brand trust. These findings highlight the importance of insurance firms implementing digital marketing-driven initiatives to improve service quality and build brand trust. This study has practical value in terms of guiding insurance companies in using digital marketing to build their reputation in a competitive market.

Trends offer direction and momentum. However, trends in mortality are affected by trend breaks, which are a consequence of mortality shocks. Additionally, insufficient historical data challenge the credibility of the forecasted trends, which are useful for actuaries in pricing, reserving, and valuing life insurance products. To address these challenges, the study aims to determine and incorporate trend breaks among individual causes of death and coherently forecast them by applying the bottom-up hierarchical forecasting approach for life insurance models. The models used are categorized as base (linear model), auto-statistical (Arima, Exponential-Smoothing, and Prophet), and auto-machine learning. The data from the World Health Organization consisted of annualized mortality quantities by cause, gender, age, and period for Kenya. Results based on the mean absolute percentage error criteria across the causes of death showed that all the models apart from the base model showed significant improvement after accounting for the trend breaks with the best being the auto machine learning approach leading with seven causes of death. Updating forecasts based on the computed trend breakpoints that varied between 2007 to 2011 generally improved forecast accuracy. These results suggest that forecasting errors may be reduced after accounting for trend breaks and model specifications. Furthermore, this implies that insufficient data do not necessarily produce deficient forecasts. The study’s contribution involved applying approaches that enhance the accuracy of forecasting models to prevent adverse effects of mortality shocks in actuarial modeling.

The significance of companies’ readiness for digital transformation is becoming more widely recognized. This study, focusing on insurance companies in Jordan, aims to investigate the impact of organizational readiness on digital transformation. The study participants were staff members from various departments and administrative levels within the insurance companies, and the study population included all insurance companies in Jordan. This study uses convenience sampling to gather the required data by distributing an online questionnaire of 39 questions. A total of 245 valid responses were received and analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling. The results of the study prove that change valence positively influences digital transformation. The results also show that change efficacy, incorporating resource, IT, and cognitive readiness, positively affect digital transformation. Moreover, the results confirm that contextual factors incorporating cultural, strategic, and partnership readiness positively impact digital transformation. Further, employees’ work experience moderates the relationships between organizational readiness constructs and digital transformation. These results indicate that the insurance companies in Jordan should implement a comprehensive approach that encompasses an organizational rehabilitation strategy.

Digital transformation is critical in driving competitive success, particularly in Indonesia’s life insurance industry, which faces challenges in adopting effective digital strategies to address operational inefficiencies and declining customer engagement. This study aims to investigate the mediating role of Digital Enablement in the relationship between Market Orientation, Transformational Leadership, and Life Insurance Performance in Indonesia. A quantitative design was employed, using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) with SmartPLS to analyze data collected from a census of 54 senior executives from life insurance companies in Indonesia, gathered through structured questionnaires. The findings reveal that both Market Orientation and Transformational Leadership significantly foster Digital Enablement, which, in turn, enhances Life Insurance Performance. However, the direct effects of Market Orientation and Transformational Leadership on Life Insurance Performance were found to be insignificant, emphasizing the critical role of Digital Enablement as a mediator. While Market Orientation and Transformational Leadership contribute to Digital Enablement, their impact on performance outcomes is mainly indirect, reinforcing the role of digital tools in improving operational efficiency, customer engagement, and business growth.

Non-life insurance has grown in developing countries over the past decade, despite challenges and large differences in premiums across Arab countries. This study investigates the effect of cultural factors on non-life insurance spending in Arab countries using panel data covering the period from 2010 to 2023. Eight independent variables were employed. They are uncertainty avoidance, individualism, power distance, masculinity, long-term orientation, indulgence, income per capita and interest rate. The results of the study prove that uncertainty avoidance positively influences spending on non-life insurance. The results also show that Arab societies with pragmatic and masculine traits prefer to spend a lot of money on purchasing non-life insurance. However, the results confirm that cultural factors incorporating individualism, power distance, and indulgence negatively impact non-life insurance. Further, the interest rate also negatively affects non-life insurance. In contrast, income per capita has an insignificant impact. These results indicate that insurance companies working in Arab countries should consider those significant factors to improve the quality of insurance services that encompass non-life insurance contracts.

The integration of insurance technology with e-commerce in Saudi Arabia is a key driver of financial and technological advancement, aligning with Vision 2030, the national strategy for economic diversification and digital transformation. This study examines the technological factors influencing this integration, assessing both enablers and barriers, including application programming interfaces, artificial intelligence, real-time risk assessment, cybersecurity, outdated infrastructure, and regulatory alignment. A quantitative approach was employed, gathering data from 253 professionals in Saudi Arabia’s insurance and e-commerce sectors, including financial managers handling underwriting and investment, compliance officers ensuring regulatory compliance, information technology specialists overseeing system integration and cybersecurity, and policymakers shaping industry regulations. Structural equation modeling revealed that application programming interfaces (β = 0.78, p = 0.020), artificial intelligence (β = 0.70, p = 0.025), and real-time risk assessment (β = 0.62, p = 0.030) significantly facilitate integration, while cybersecurity vulnerabilities (β = 0.57, p = 0.035), outdated infrastructure (β = 0.54, p = 0.040), and regulatory misalignment (β = 0.57, p = 0.035) pose major barriers. Additionally, government incentives (β = 0.51, p = 0.040) and workforce expertise (β = 0.49, p = 0.035) influence adoption outcomes. The findings highlight the need for regulatory harmonization, enhanced cybersecurity, financial support, and workforce training to facilitate seamless integration and ensure the long-term sustainability of insurance technology in Saudi Arabia’s evolving digital economy.

The growing technological disruption in the modern era has redefined the existing business processes. As a result, being strategically aligned while allocating proper resources is pivotal for any business. This study focuses on managers’ digital capability in conjunction with strategic alignment and resource availability in Jordanian insurance companies. Data were gathered via a questionnaire and covered 304 administrative employees from 16 licensed insurance companies in Jordan, processed through a cross-sectional survey. The analysis using SmartPLS (4) was conducted to verify the relationships between strategic alignment, resource allocation, and digital capabilities. The analysis showed a significant positive correlation between strategic alignment and overall digital capabilities, with a path coefficient of 0.710 and an R² of 0.953. Likewise, resource availability positively correlated with the increase in overall digital capabilities, with a path coefficient of 0.685 and an R² of 0.888 for available resources. In cases where resource increases were observed, strategic alignments were also observed where the strategy increased digital capabilities through improved resource allocation parameters. This additional corroborative evidence was supplied with a path coefficient of 0.680 and an R² of 0.910. It is reasonable to hypothesize that organizations with favorable resource management practices will be more successful in harnessing strategic alignment to fill the gaps in digital competencies. Therefore, the study proposes that insurance companies should design better resource allocation policies coupled with more effective staff training to take full advantage of digital transformations. These steps are necessary to gain and maintain a competitive advantage in the ever-changing and turbulent insurance industry.

Acknowledgment
The authors are grateful to Middle East University, Amman, Jordan, for the financial support to cover this article's publishing fee.

Indonesia’s insurance sector faces governance challenges, including low market penetration, financial instability, and declining public trust. This study examines the impact of Good Corporate Governance (GCG) mechanisms, including the Independent Board of Commissioners, Board of Directors, Audit Committee, and Institutional Ownership, along with Firm Size, on profitability, measured by Return on Equity (ROE). Using multiple linear regression, the study analyzes 240 financial reports from 15 publicly listed Indonesian insurance firms (2020–2023). The findings indicate that most governance mechanisms, including the Independent Board of Commissioners, Audit Committee, and Institutional Ownership, do not significantly affect profitability. However, the Board of Directors negatively influences business performance, suggesting potential inefficiencies or governance constraints. Conversely, Firm Size positively affects profitability, highlighting the advantage of economies of scale. This suggests that structural governance alone is insufficient for profitability without accompanying firm-level strategic advantages. These outcomes imply that Indonesian insurance firms may be over-relying on compliance-based governance without leveraging it for performance gains. Strengthening the strategic capabilities of governance actors could turn oversight mechanisms into profitability drivers.

Acknowledgments
The research team would like to thank Universitas Multimedia Nusantara for supporting this study. 

The South African non-life insurance sector faces persistent challenges, including low investment returns, the need for digital transformation, and underperformance in meeting strategic goals. These issues threaten operational efficiency and financial health, critical factors for resilience in a competitive market. This study investigates the relationship between operational efficiency, financial health, and resilience in 32 South African non-life insurance companies. A descriptive research design was employed, analyzing panel data from 2008 to 2019, a period chosen due to the financial crisis of 2008, which significantly impacted the insurance industry. Data were sourced from S&P Capital IQ and Refinitiv Eikon, known for providing reliable financial information. Regression analysis was used to examine how liquidity, leverage, and company size influence financial health, with company size analyzed as a moderating factor.
The results showed that liquidity and leverage positively impact financial health, with larger companies benefiting more from operational efficiency and profitability improvements. However, the effect of liquidity decreases as company size increases. The model demonstrated strong explanatory power (R² = 0.8662) and was statistically significant (Wald Chi² = 611.92, p < 0.01). These findings offer actionable insights for industry stakeholders and policymakers, emphasizing the importance of tailored strategies to enhance resilience and sustainable growth across companies of varying sizes. Addressing operational inefficiencies and financial health can strengthen the industry’s capacity to navigate future challenges.

In an environment where public funding is insufficient to meet international climate and energy goals, feed-in tariffs serve as an essential mechanism to mitigate investment risk and foster the participation of insurance companies as institutional investors in the renewable energy sector. This study aims to investigate whether feed-in tariff policies enhance the evolving effect of insurance sector development on renewable energy consumption across countries and over time. Given that both financial sector capacity and renewable energy transitions are dynamic processes, the analysis explicitly applies econometric techniques designed to capture temporal changes and investment inertia. Using panel data econometric techniques, including fixed effects models with cluster-robust standard errors and dynamic panel estimation (Arellano-Bond GMM), the analysis covers 64 countries from 2000 to 2020. The results reveal that greater insurance sector assets positively correlate with higher renewable energy consumption, with a coefficient of 0.143 (p < 0.01) in the fixed effects model. Still, the strength and significance of this relationship are notably enhanced when feed-in tariffs are in place, as shown by a positive and statistically significant interaction term (coefficient 0.051, p < 0.05) after adding time-fixed effects. The empirical results show that insurance companies can serve as critical institutional investors in the renewable energy sector. Still, their active participation critically depends on supportive policy frameworks, with the positive association between insurance company assets and renewable energy consumption becoming significant, particularly in countries with feed-in tariff schemes.

Acknowledgment
This study was prepared as part of the project IZURZ1_224119/1 (Swiss National Science Foundation) and the National Scholarship Programme of the Slovak Republic.
The publication was funded by the European Union grant “NextGenerationEU through the Recovery and Resilience Plan for Slovakia” (No. 09I03-03-V01-00130) and project VEGA – 1/0392/23 “Changes in the approach to the creation of companies’ distribution management concepts influenced by the effects of social and economic crises caused by the global pandemic and increased security risks.”

AI technology integration into the Indian insurance industry promises many benefits, but its acceptance among older adults remains a challenge. Previous studies have paid insufficient attention to older adults’ unique needs and concerns in the context of AI-driven insurance service acceptance in India. The purpose of the study is to evaluate the acceptance of AI-powered digital insurance services among older adults in Kerala, India, from the perspective of customer satisfaction. This exploratory study employed the insights of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), the Information System Continuance Model (ISCM), and the Customer Satisfaction (C-SAT) method. Data were collected by conducting interviews in September 2024 with 20 older adults using AI-powered insurance services. Findings indicate a positive trend in adopting digital insurance services among older adults. However, the mean C-SAT scores for Perceived Usefulness and Perceived Ease of Use were 58% and 56%, respectively. Customer satisfaction scores for chatbot services and automated claims processing stood at 55% and 50%, respectively. These calculated scores are below the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) benchmark of 77.9% for Q2 2024. The participants of the study also expressed concerns regarding the use of AI-powered digital insurance services, citing inadequate user training facilities, fears of financial loss, privacy issues, and security and safety concerns. These results suggest the need for enhancements in AI interface design, user training, and customer support to better meet the unique needs and concerns of older adults and improve overall satisfaction.