New service development in the Thai insurance industry | |
| Author | Ranchana Rajatanavin |
| Call Number | AIT Diss. no.SM-04-03 |
| Subject(s) | Insurance, Life --Thailand Insurance, Life--Customer services |
| Note | A dissertation submitted in pa1tial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, School of Management |
| Publisher | Asian Institute of Technology |
| Abstract | New Service Development (NSD) is becoming ever more important as the insurance industry in many countries opens and becomes more competitive. NSD is particularly necessary for companies to launch new products into the market so that they continue to attract customers to buy their products as market needs change and products available to meet those needs evolve. This study examines how NSD works in the Thai insurance industry, and focusing on how customer views are integrated into the NSD process. The pilot and main study is qualitative research, conducted using indepth interviews with NSD team members, senior executive vise presidents of marketing, vise presidents of actuarial departments, vise presidents of research and planning, executive sales managers, and government officials in the top five leading life insurance companies in Thailand. The pilot work and main qualitative results showed that the NSD process in Thailand is not oriented toward developing truly innovative product concepts, but there is much NSD for adaptation of products from other markets. NSD includes three stages: service concept development, service system development, and service delivery process development. The concept is the core benefit of the product. In Thailand, it is primarily about finding good market fit, less frequently about finding market gaps, and even if gaps were found, any competitive advantage would be short-term, because competitors would be able to copy the concept quickly. Most of the service system is also fairly standard, as standard components pass through the regulatory system more easily. In the third phase of NSD, the companies try to make differentiated services for customers, based on the strong role of interpersonal interaction with customers. The results in the main study show that the factors affecting information flow and continuous learning are cross-functional teamwork, relationships between functions, mechanisms for getting good information sharing in the organization, and information advantage. Thus, multifunctional teamwork and integrating information flow in the process can improve new product I service development. Moreover, the sales agents act as a main information transfer mechanism, bringing in customer views through the sales managers. They act as a data I information screen, controlling for potential bias from sales agents. Finally, respondents emphasized that the critical success factors in the NSD process revolve around sales agents, customer relations, and information for NSD. Info1mation flows, although very critical, do not seem to be highly systematized in NSD cun-ently. An empirical survey study also confirmed that giving information about customer needs to the NSD team has a positive impact on new product I service performance. The more important the sales agents believe this customer information to be, the stronger this positive impact is. Given the critical role of information in NSD in this industry, the final chapter suggests integrating some QFD tools into the process to enhance the effectiveness of the information in aiding good NSD decisions. |
| Year | 2004 |
| Type | Dissertation |
| School | School of Management |
| Department | Other Field of Studies (No Department) |
| Academic Program/FoS | Master of Business Administration (MBA) (Publication code=SM) |
| Chairperson(s) | Speece, Mark W.; |
| Examination Committee(s) | Igel, Barbara;Dimmitt, Nicholas J. ;Patterson, Paul G.; |
| Scholarship Donor(s) | Sripatum University ; |
| Degree | Thesis (Ph.D.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2004 |