INSURANCE AWARENESS: A LITERATURE REVIEW
1,3,4Department of Finance and Economics, College of Business Management and Accounting, Sultan Haji Ahmad Shah Campus, Pahang, Malaysia
2Azman Hashim International Business School, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Jalan Sultan Yahya Petra, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this paper is to provide a systematic literature review of available research evidence on insurance awareness. Key word search was performed and an analysis was made to achieve the objective of this study. From the systematic search, 40 research papers published for the period between 2012 and October 2017 were found, collected and analysed with respect to bibliographical information such as publication year and location of the research. This paper contributes to the lack of systematic research done in the area of insurance awareness.
Keywords:Awareness Insurance Consumer Product innovation.
ARTICLE HISTORY: Received:6 November 2017, Revised: 6 February 2018, Accepted:9 February 2018, Published:12 February 2018.
1. INTRODUCTION
Insurance industry is growing over time. Global primary premium growth is forecast to be 2.2% at the end of 2017 and then improve to 3.0% in 2018. Awareness is one of the factors that contribute to the growing number of insurance penetration. Product awareness is defined as the individuals’ passive involvement and raised interest towards the product. Awareness has been recognized as the main drives of insurance penetration. Although the volume of the literature body on the specifics of awareness in insurance has been increasing in recent years, it is still fragmented, and no systematic review has yet been conducted on the topic. The non-existence of a systematic review of insurance awareness may be regarded as a gap, which this paper aims to achieve.
This paper proceeds as follows: Section 2 outlines the objective and research questions. Section 3 discusses the methods for the literature review, followed by the findings in section 4 and conclusions and limitations in section 5.
2. OBJECTIVE AND RESEARCH QUESTION
The main objective of this paper is to identify numbers of articles related to insurance awareness available at the selected databases. Specifically, the following research questions will be addressed:
RQ1: Is research on insurance awareness is expanding or declining?
RQ2: Where the research has been explored at most?
RQ3: What is the direction in insurance awareness research?
3. METHODOLOGY
To provide a comprehensive search of the literature on awareness and innovation, Emerald insight, Scopus, Science direct, Jstor, Ingenta journals, Taylor and Francis, Web of Science, SAGE, and DORJ databases were searched. To provide current and up to date data, only articles from the past 5 years, from January 2012 to October 2017 were used for analysis. In providing comprehensive literature, only research articles was considered for reviewing process as it’s represent the top level of research and most often used by academicians and practitioners in acquiring information and publishing new findings.
Therefore, conference papers, masters and doctoral dissertations, textbooks and unpublished working paper were excluded from consideration. The articles were search based on 2 keywords which are “awareness” and “insurance”. All the databases were accessed via internet on 1st November until 13th November 2017. The process of collecting the articles involves 6 stages. The first stage is an initial selection, whereby the keywords appeared in a single sentence in either the abstract or the title was selected. Further, filtering stage was conducted. This stage involves filtering the articles that is not mainly related to awareness and insurance.
The main aim is to make sure only related articles is included for further analysis. In most of the cases, majority of articles were rejected as these keywords just happened to appear together. As a result, the majority of papers were rejected, and only 40 papers were retained for possible inclusion in this review. All the final articles were reviewed carefully and data pertaining to number of articles published per year and location of the research. Data were compiled and coded into a spread sheet for further analysis.
4. FINDINGS
In this paper, all articles were analyzed for the purpose of providing insights to the growth and development of research on insurance awareness. The analyzed parameters are distribution of articles by number of articles published per year, and location of the research.
4.1. Distribution of Articles by Year
Table 1 and Figure 1 listed and ranked 40 articles by publication year. Findings show that the number of publication is decreasing from 8 to 5 articles in year 2012 to 2013. However, the number of publication increasing overtime from 2013 to 2015, before subsequent decrease in 2016 and 2017.
Table-1. Distribution of articles by year
Source: Findings
Source: Findings
4.2. Distribution of Articles by Research Location
Figure 2 shows percentage of article published based on research location. Findings show that the majority, 45% of the research were conducted in India, followed by 8% in China (10%) and Nigeria (7%).
Source: Findings
5. CONCLUSION AND DISCUSSION
Analysis of the articles published in the area of insurance awareness for the years 2012 to 2017 has provided the following information:
- Research in the area of insurance awareness is increasing overtime.
- Most of the research has been conducted in India. The significant number of research in India is probably due to several factors. The main factor is the lack of awareness and knowledge in insurance. Research on insurance awareness therefore becomes one of the popular topics for publication.
- Although research in the area of insurance awareness shows a significant increase, it is expected that research in this area will reduce overtime, as a result of increasing awareness of the insurance industry.
- As the awareness toward insurance products and services increase, research in the area of insurance might move towards other areas, such as the applicability of technology, innovation in products and other research areas.
This paper is one of very few studies which have conducted the systematic search of research papers in the area of insurance awareness. This paper, however, has several limitations, which are to be acknowledged. First, the generalization of the findings of this paper is limited to the time frame of the study period. Expending the time frame might have led to different review results. Second, while some of other articles use the word takaful, which represent Islamic insurance, this paper focuses only in the two relevant keyword aforementioned, which is insurance and awareness, thus, any systematic literature review that not within these two keywords are out of the analysis. Third, this paper also focused exclusively on journal articles. Any other literatures such as books, book chapters, conference and working papers and other types of articles are excluded from the analysis. The main reason of focusing on research articles is because of its exclusivity as a way of communicating novel scientific findings.
| Funding: This project is financially supported by Bold Grant (10289176/B/9/2017/60) from Universiti Tenaga Nasional (UNITEN). |
| Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no competing interests. |
| Contributors/Acknowledgement: All authors contributed equally to the conception and design of the study. |
REFERENCES
Agarwal, J. and K.K. Shukla, 2014. Awareness and impact of globalization of life insurance in India. International Journal of Application or Innovation in Engineering & Management, 3(10): 1-8. View at Google Scholar
Ajemunigbohun, S.S., S.O. Ademola and A.S. Iyun, 2014. An exploratory study of the awareness and accessibility of microinsurance products in selected insurance companies in Lagos, Nigeria. European Journal of Business and Management, 6(28): 1-9. View at Google Scholar
Allain, D.C., S. Friedman and L. Senter, 2012. Consumer awareness and attitudes about insurance discrimination post enactment of the genetic information nondiscrimination act. Familial Cancer, 11(4): 637-644.View at Google Scholar | View at Publisher
Banerjee, T.S., 2014. Effects of age and hierarchy levels on awareness of disaster insurance. Global Journal of Finance and Management, 6(9): 893-896. View at Google Scholar
Banne, A.S. and S.S. Bhola, 2014. Awareness of life insurance among sample customers. Indian Streams Research Journal, 4(7): 1-15.View at Google Scholar
Bansal, A., S. Goel, A. Singh, A.A. Singh, A.K. Goel, S.M. Naik and S. Goel, 2015. A community-based study to assess the awareness of health insurance among rural Northern Indian population. International Journal of Health System and Disaster Management, 3(1): 41-43. View at Google Scholar | View at Publisher
Bias, T.K., P. Agarwal and P. Fitzgerald, 2015. Changing awareness of the health insurance marketplace. American Journal of Public Health, 105(S5): S633-S636.View at Google Scholar | View at Publisher
Bordey, F.H. and I.A. Arida, 2015. Adoption of rice crop insurance in the philippines: Lessons from farmer's experience. Philippine Journal of Crop Science, 40(1): 24-34.View at Google Scholar
Dalkilic, N. and E. Kirkbesoglu, 2015. The role of financial literacy on the development of insurance awareness. International Journal of Economics and Finance, 7(8): 272-280.View at Google Scholar | View at Publisher
Flores, G., H. Lin, C. Walker, M. Lee, A. Portillo, M. Henry and K. Massey, 2016. A cross-sectional study of parental awareness of and reasons for lack of health insurance among minority children, and the impact on health, access to care, and unmet needs. International Journal for Equity in Health, 15(1): 1-13.View at Google Scholar | View at Publisher
Gautam, V. and M. Kumar, 2012. A study on attitudes of Indian consumers towards insurance services. Management Research and Practice, 4(1): 51-62.View at Google Scholar
Geng, X., V. Ide, W. Janssens, B. Kramer and M. van der List, 2017. Health insurance, a friend in need? Evidence from financial and health diaries in Kenya. IFPRI Discussion Paper 01664.
Ghazanfar, S., Z. Qi-wen, M. Abdullah, Z. Ahmad and M. Lateef, 2015. Farmers' perception and awareness and factors affecting awareness of farmers regarding crop insurance as a risk coping mechanism evidence from Pakistan. Journal of Northeast Agricultural University, 22(1): 76-82.View at Google Scholar | View at Publisher
Ghimire, Y.N., K.P. Timsina, G. Kandel, D. Devkota, D.B. Thapamagar, S. Gautam and B. Sharma, 2016. Agricultural insurance issues and factors affecting its adoption: A case of banana insurance in Nepal. An Official Journal of Nepal Horticulture Society, 11(1): 74-82. View at Google Scholar
Ghosh, M., 2013. Awareness and willingness to pay for health insurance: A study of darjeeling district. IOSR Journal of Humanities and Social Science, 12(1): 41-47.View at Google Scholar | View at Publisher
Goudappa, S.B., B.S. Reddy and S.M. Chandrashekhar, 2012. Farmers perception and awareness about crop insurance in Karnataka. Indian Research Journal of Extension Education, 2(Special Issue): 218-222.View at Google Scholar
Hebbar, C.K., S. Shenoy and G.P. Rao, 2014. Risk awareness and usage of child insurance plan with special reference to HDFC standard life insurance company in India. Gjra-Global Journal for Research Analysis, 3(6): 116-121.
Hoque, M.B., 2015. Awareness of maternal health services among micro health insurance beneficiaries. International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health, 2(2): 81-85. View at Google Scholar |View at Publisher
Jain, D. and N. Goyal, 2012. An empirical study of the level of awareness towards various rights and duties among the insured households in Rajasthan, India. Researchers World, 3(3): 40-49.View at Google Scholar
Jung, D.I., C.K. Kim and D.S. Ko, 2014. The survey of awareness and necessity on introduce home physical therapy in the long-term care insurance. Journal of the Korea Contents Association, 14(6): 298-306. View at Google Scholar | View at Publisher
Jung, J.Y., S.H. Kim, Y.K. Kim, S.Y. Ahn, E.M. Yoo, B.K. Choi and S.J. Han, 2016. Awareness and using status on long-term care insurance and insurance benefits. Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene, 16(3): 373-381.View at Google Scholar | View at Publisher
Jung, J.Y. and M.H. Lim, 2015. The factors of oral health beliefs on scaling performance by national health insurance coverage in consumers. Journal of Korean Society of Dental Hygiene, 15(1): 31-38. View at Google Scholar | View at Publisher
Kalpana, B. and B. Sadhana, 2012. Insurance a ray of hope: A study on the level of awareness of private players in the insurance industry. Journal of Contemporary Research in Management, 3(3): 125-140.View at Google Scholar
Karthik, T. and L. Ramalingam, 2013. Farmers'awareness about crop insurance schemes: An analytical study. Clear International Journal of Research in Commerce & Management, 4(8): 66-72. View at Google Scholar
Kimani, J.K., R. Ettarh, C. Kyobutungi, B. Mberu and K. Muindi, 2012. Determinants for participation in a public health insurance program among residents of urban slums in Nairobi, Kenya: Results from a cross-sectional survey. BMC Health Services Research, 12(1): 66-77. View at Google Scholar | View at Publisher
Kitunzi, H., M. Helen and G. Consolate, 2016. Influence of awareness on the usage of motor third party insurance: A case study of kampala district. African Health Sciences, 16(4): 1169-1173.View at Google Scholar
Krishnekumaar, S.T. and K.S. Meenakshisundaram, 2015. A study of women empowerment & community participation in health insurance awareness in India. International Journal of Research in IT and Management, 5(9): 15-28. View at Google Scholar
Mishra, A., P. Bafna and R. Srivastava, 2016. Awareness about equity link insurance schemes of life insurance companies. Jagran Journal of Commerce and Economics, 3(5): 75-86.
Namukasa, J., J. Ssekakubo and B. Bagenda, 2017. Assessment of the level of awareness and perception of motor third party insurance in Kampala, Uganda. Journal of Risk Management and Insurance, 21(1): 22-40.View at Google Scholar
Olila, D.O. and K.O. Pambo, 2014. Determinants of farmers’ awareness about crop insurance: Evidence from Trans-Nzoia County, Kenya. Annual Egerton University International Conference, 26(1).
Oyekale, A.S. and A. Adeyeye, 2012. Rural households’ Awareness and willingness to pay for national health insurance scheme (NHIS) in Ilesha West Local Government Area, Osun State Nigeria: A recursive bivariate probit approach. Life Science Journal, 9(4): 2086-2093.View at Google Scholar
Pandve, H.T. and C.V. Parulekar, 2013. Health insurance: Is Indian rural population aware? International Journal of Applied and Basic Medical Research, 3(2): 132-132.View at Google Scholar | View at Publisher
Paudel, P.K. and A. Silwal, 2016. General public awareness in life insurance. International Research Journal of Management Science, 1(1): 29-41.
Soni, B.K. and J.C. Trivedi, 2013. Crop insurance: An empirical study on awareness and perceptions. GIAN Jyoti E-journal, 3(2): 81-93. View at Google Scholar
Subashini, G., 2016. An empirical study on the awareness of general insurance among small entrepreneurs. International Journal of Recent Advances in Multidisciplinary Research, 3(6): 1571-1575.
Twum-Barima, L.M., 2014. An assessment of the awareness of fire insurance in the informal sector: A case study of Kumasi central market in Ghana. International Journal of Economics and Empirical Research, 2(7): 268-273.
Wang, M., C. Liao, S. Yang, W. Zhao, M. Liu and P. Shi, 2012. Are people willing to buy natural disaster insurance in China? Risk awareness, insurance acceptance, and willingness to pay. Risk Analysis, 32(10): 1717-1740.View at Google Scholar | View at Publisher
Wang, M., T. Ye and P. Shi, 2016. Factors affecting farmers’ crop insurance participation in China. Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics/Revue Canadienne d'agroeconomie, 64(3): 479-492. View at Google Scholar | View at Publisher
Wen, C., Z. Yanyan, J. Jinghu, Z. Jing-Xian, S. Xuepeng, Q. Xing and H. Chengge, 2015. Factors influencing oral insurance among children in Chengdu. Hua xi kou qiang yi xue za zhi= Huaxi kouqiang yixue zazhi= West China Journal of Stomatology, 33(6): 593-596.View at Google Scholar
Yi-Yan, X.U., 2013. The influence factors on the individual business owners' awareness of taking endowment insurance——based on the survey in Fuzhou of Fujian province. Journal of Harbin University, 1: 014.View at Google Scholar