Research On Evaluation Of The Core Competence Of Small & Medium-Sized Insurance Enterprises

With the further acceleration of globalization and improvement of China's socialist market-oriented economic system, Enterprises, as the main competitors in market, have become increasingly important, while the competitive environment is becoming more complicated. With China's entry to the WTO, especially with the terminating of the agreement on protecting China's insurance industry for five years, the competition between the insurance companies has become increasingly fierce. As a result, it is more difficult for the small and medium-sized insurance companies to achieve lasting survival and rapid development. The competition between the insurance industries of different countries that of different enterprises has transferred to the core competence which features as the innovation of insurance product, insurance services, human resources, and corporate culture as well. Accordingly, it has been the focus of the insurance business and the research field to probe the survival and then raise the core competence of China's small and medium-sized insurance enterprises.In this paper, the development process, current state and problems of the small and medium-sized insurance companies in China are summed up based on the recalling of the relevant theories of the core competence of enterprises. On the scientific and standardized principles, a relatively complete evaluation index system of the small and medium-sized insurance enterprise's core competence is constructed. Meanwhile, the core competence of the small and medium-sized insurance companies in China is researched with a scientific, rational and comprehensive evaluation method. Still, with the combination of theory and analysis, implications and suggestions are put forward so as to enhance the core competence of small and medium insurance companies in China.The framework of the dissertation is as follows:Chapter 1.the General Introduction. Firstly, the research background, the purpose and the significance of the dissertation are presented, and then the research trends and frontiers of the enterprise core competence and that of small and medium insurance companies home and abroad are briefly summarized. Finally, the research methods and ideas and the possible innovations are put forward.Chapter 2. the theoretical analysis on the core competence of small and medium-sized insurance. This chapter is the theoretical foundation of the follow-up research. The nature of enterprise and the concept of enterprise competition are summarized respectively, the difference and association between the competence of enterprises and the core competence of enterprises are analyzed, and then, the definition, connotation, conditions, characteristics and identification of enterprise's core competence are analyzed. Finally, on the basis of the discussion of small and medium-sized enterprises at home and abroad, the concept of small and medium-sized enterprises insurance in this dissertation is defined, and the constituent elements of the enterprises'core competence is summarized.Chapter 3.the history, current state and problems of small and medium-sized insurance enterprises. In this chapter, the development process of China's insurance industry is reviewed briefly, the current state of the of the small and medium-sized insurance enterprises in China is analyzed from the perspectives of its development scale, market construction, geographical distribution, market demands, as well as the analysis of its functions. Also, the major issues of the core competence of China's small and medium-sized insurance enterprises are summed up.Chapter 4.the evaluation system of core competence for small and medium-sized insurance enterprises is constructed. ` In this chapter, the necessity for the construction of the evaluation index system of core competence is briefly introduced firstly. then, on the scientific, all-sided way, representative criteria as well as the principle of quantitative and qualitative indicator choosing, the evaluation system of China's small and medium-sized insurance enterprises' core competence is constructed which includes market capacity, the scale of capacity, financial capacity, solvency, brand strengths and the capacity to integrate information resources. Still, the basic framework for the following empirical analysis of the core competence of China's small and medium-sized insurance enterprises is provided in this chapter.Chapter 5.the evaluation method for the core competence of the small and medium-sized insurance enterprises in China. In this chapter, the evaluation method to assess the core competence of enterprises, such as the analytic hierarchy process, factor analysis, principal component analysis, DEA data envelopment model, strategic analysis, as well as their advantages and disadvantages are introduced and analyzed respectively. This chapter, as a whole, lays the foundation for Chapter VI where the merits and the improvement of the core competence of the small and medium-sized insurance enterprises in China are empirically analyzed by mathematical methods.Chapter 6.he empirical analysis on the core competence of the small and medium-sized insurance enterprises in China. Through factor analysis model, Data Eenvelopment Aanalysis (DEA) and AHP, the core competence of the small and medium-sized insurance companies in China are analyzed empirically. The results of the three methods are basically consistent, which reflect the true integrity and level of the core competence of the small and medium-sized insurance companies in China, though the ordinal arrangement of the three results are different due to the different selection methods of the evaluation indicators, the sort results are different. The analysis result indicates that the core competence of the small and medium-sized insurance enterprises in China as a whole is relatively weak, which underpin the advances for enhancing the core competence of China's small and medium-sized insurance enterprises.Chapter 7. the experiences and implications of foreign insurance companies to enhance the core competence. In this chapter, the practices and experiences to enhance the core competence of insurance enterprises of both the foreign developed countries and comparable developing countries based on both of the internal and external factors which influents the insurance industry's core competence. The external factors includes market access, the insurance regulatory, insurance tax system, marketing systems and supporting measures while the internal factors includes the governance pattern, service model, investment channels, operations, management philosophy, scope of services as well as business of organization, etc. Meanwhile, the implications from the international insurance companies to improve their core competence are summarized brieflyChapter 8.the Countermeasures to enhance the core competence of China's small and medium-sized insurance enterprises. Based on the status quo of China's small and medium-sized insurance companies above and the contents of Chapter VI and Chapter VII, the policy options and solution suggestions for the small and medium-sized insurance companies to enhance their core competence are provided in this chapter...