Strategic Agility Enablers and Performance of Insurance Brokerage Firms in Kenya
Abstract
Globalization has changed the face of the competitive arena that affected in many industries
progressing from slow moving, stable oligopolies to hypercompetitive environments. Varied
products to changing operational systems are hastily introduced by the many in the insurance
industry trying to outperform the competitors. The objectives of this study were to:
Determine the strategic agility enablers among insurance brokerage firms in Kenya and to
establish the effect of strategic agility enablers on performance of insurance brokerage firms
in Kenya. The study employed a descriptive research design and regression analysis. The
population comprised 193 insurance brokers operating in Kenya .The relevant data which
was required for this research was gathered from primary sources, through the use of a semistructured
questionnaire. The findings were presented using charts and tables. Descriptive
statistics for the quantitative data included frequencies, percentages, mean scores and
standard deviation. Data obtained from the questionnaires were processed through editing and
coding and then entered into a computer for analysis using descriptive statistics with the
assistance of Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 22. The study found that
formalization, skills and attitude, management commitment and support and digitized
processes affect the performance of the insurance brokerage firms to a great extent. The study
found that organisation structure, discontinuous innovation, human capital, management
commitment and support, information technology integration and operational processes
effectiveness affects the performance of insurance brokerage firms in Kenya. The study also
found that discontinuous innovations such as experimentation with new ideas and exploration
of new paradigms affect performance of insurance brokerage firms in Kenya. The study
found that staff skills, attitudes, experience and competence are very significant in the
performance of insurance brokerage firms. However, there is no teamwork among employees
in the insurance brokerage firms. The study concludes that there is more emphasis on the
quality (TQM) and supply chain coordination among the insurance brokerage firms in Kenya
which greatly affect their performance. The study recommends that the management of
insurance brokerage firms should put in place cost-effective measures for timely risk
identification and effective risk mitigation so as to ensure that their financial performance is
not impacted negatively. The study also recommends that insurance brokerage firms need to
develop robust technology-enabled innovation strategies that define how a company sources
and develops technology to help deliver compelling new products, services, customer
experiences and business models while simultaneously creating barriers to entry. The
insurance brokerage firms should adopt the use of IT in their service delivery in order to
improve their efficiencies as the higher the level of usage, the more efficient firms become
the more profitable it is. The study recommends that managers of insurance brokerage firms
should put forward strategic plans to ensure that insurance claims complaint files are properly
kept, monitored and handled for needs that may warrant its usefulness in the future.Insurance
brokerage firms should integrate their departments, their key suppliers and payment system to
make it easy for processing of documents which shall result into efficiency hence improved
performance
Publisher
University of Nairobi
Subject
Insurance Brokerage FirmsRights
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United StatesUsage Rights
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/Collections
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