| Life insurance industry is an important part of the national economy and plays an indispensable role in China’s economic operation and social development.Life insurance marketing channel is an important driving force to promote the development of life insurance industry,and its efficiency is an important factor affecting the overall efficiency of life insurance industry.Therefore,how to objectively,impartially and accurately evaluate the efficiency of life insurance marketing channels and analyze the influencing factors of efficiency,and put forward feasible countermeasure recommendations have become an important issue of common concern to both theoretical and practical circles.From the perspective of foreign research,the research results on marketing channel efficiency are relatively rich,and empirical research is the main method.But besides the common characteristics,marketing channels also have strong local characteristics among countries.For example,independent agent channel,which occupies an important position in developed markets such as the United States,have not yet been approved by regulator in China,and the pattern of personal agent,bancassurance and direct marketing as the three main channels in China is rare in foreign countries.Domestic research on marketing channel efficiency mainly focuses on normative analysis,but there are few empirical studies.In the empirical research,concise and intuitive Financial Index Analysis is the main method,which makes it difficult to determine the relative weight of each index objectively and impartially.However,there are fewer empirical studies using Frontier Analysis methods commonly used in foreign studies,which can cover multiple inputs and outputs.This dissertation combines the Frontier Analysis method commonly used in foreign efficiency studies with the actual situation of China’s life insurance marketing channels,and studies the economic efficiency of China’s life insurance marketing channels and its influencing factors.On the basis of combing the efficiency theory and common analysis methods,combining the evolution course and basic characteristics of the main marketing channels in China,this dissertation emphatically studies the efficiency of marketing channels and its influencing factors from three aspects.Firstly,the Data Envelopment Analysis(DEA)method of Frontier Analysis is used to analyze marketing channel system and the three main channels of personal agent,bancassurance and direct marketing(the premium income of these three channels totals more than 97% of the industry)of life insurance companies(including life insurance,health insurance and pension insurance companies)with three or more years of complete data from 2010 to 2016.Combining with the actual situation of China’s life insurance industry,this dissertation creatively incorporate the surrender value of each channel as an unexpected output into the empirical model,and strive to evaluate the economic efficiency of each channel more objectively and accurately.Secondly,based on the static analysis of marketing channel efficiency in each year,the Malmquist-Luenberger index is used to measure the efficiency change of each channel from 2010 to 2016,and the efficiency change is decomposed into technological progress change and technological efficiency change,and the main reasons for the efficiency change of each channel are analyzed.Thirdly,on the basis of theoretical analysis of the influencing factors of channel efficiency,Tobit regression model is used to empirically test the main influencing factors,and the specific influencing mode of each factor are analyzed.On the basis of the above empirical research,the dissertation finally puts forward some countermeasures and suggestions to improve the efficiency of marketing channels in China’s life insurance industry.According to the above research ideas,the structural framework of this dissertation is as follows:Chapter 1,"Introduction",opens with a clear background and significance of this dissertation,reviews the research results at home and abroad,establishes the research ideas,contents and methods of the dissertation,and also gives a brief introduction to the innovation and shortcomings of the dissertation.Chapter 2,"Efficiency Theory and Analysis Method",introduces the definition and classification of efficiency,combs the evolution of efficiency thought and theory,and deepens the understanding of the essence of efficiency.This dissertation clarifies the commonly used Financial Index Analysis method and Frontier Analysis method in empirical research,and clarifies the analysis methods and reasons of efficiency and efficiency changes to be adopted in this dissertation.Chapter 3,"Definition of Marketing Channel and its Efficiency of Life Insurance Industry",Based on the basic concepts of marketing and life insurance marketing,the concept,characteristics and classification of marketing channel of life insurance industry are explained.Combining efficiency theory and classification,this dissertation defines the definition and connotation of efficiency for life insurance company,life insurance industry,and marketing channel of life insurance industry.Chapter 4,"The Evolution Course and Reason Analysis of Marketing Channels in China’s Life Insurance Industry",After the reform and opening up,the marketing channels of China’s life insurance industry started from direct selling of employees in the 1980 s to the introduction of personal agent channels in the 1990 s,and the rise of bancassurance and professional brokerage agents after 2000,and then to the rise of internet insurance and telephone sales channels in recent years.The main reasons for the evolution and changes of marketing channels and the main achievements achieved are analyzed.Chapter 5,"Theoretical Analysis of Marketing Channels Efficiency of China’s Life Insurance Industry",studies the input-output indicators and basic characteristics of marketing channels,analyses the production process of main marketing channels,and studies the characteristics of main products and input-output of marketing channels as a whole and main marketing channels.Chapter 6,"Empirical Study on Marketing Channels Efficiency of China’s Life Insurance Industry",Selecting the data of 2010-2016,using SBM-Undesirable model of Data Envelopment Analysis,this dissertation conducts an empirical study on the economic efficiency of marketing channels as a whole and three major channels: personal agent,bancassurance and direct marketing,and uses Malmquist-Luenberger index to measure and analyze the change of efficiency in each year.Chapter 7,"Analysis of the Influencing Factors of Marketing Channels Efficiency in China’s Life Insurance Industry",Firstly,the macro,industry and micro factors affecting marketing channels efficiency are analyzed theoretically.Then,the main influencing factors are tested empirically with Tobit regression model.Finally,the influencing modes of each factor are analyzed and explained.Chapter 8,"Suggestions for the Improvement of Marketing Channels Efficiency in China’s Life Insurance Industry",Firstly,from the perspective of space,suggestions are put forward to improve efficiency from macro,industry and micro aspects.Secondly,from the perspective of time,suggestions are put forward to improve efficiency in the long,medium and short term.Finally,according to the characteristics and limitations of the main marketing channels,such as personal agent,bancassurance,employee direct marketing and internet channel,some suggestions are put forward.According to the above research ideas and structure arrangement,through the corresponding efficiency calculation and empirical analysis,this dissertation draws the following basic conclusions:1.During the sample period,the overall efficiency of marketing channels in China’s life insurance industry is not high,the average value is only 0.4146,there is a large proportion of invalid investment.The average efficiencies of personal agent,bancassurance and direct marketing are 0.4200,0.4093 and 0.3822 respectively,which are at a low level.Through rank sum test,it is found that the efficiency of personal agent channel is significantly higher than that of direct marketing channel,while there is no significant difference between personal agent channel and bancassurance channel,between bancassurance channel and direct marketing channel.On the basis of all sample companies,the overall marketing channel efficiency of Chinese-funded companies and foreign-funded companies and the efficiency of the three channels are calculated and analyzed respectively.The results show that the efficiency of Chinese-funded companies is significantly higher than that of foreign-funded companies in terms of marketing channels as a whole,as well as personal agent,bancassurance and direct marketing,which highlights the advantages of localization of marketing channels.2.In terms of efficiency change,the overall efficiency of marketing channels has increased by 0.7% annually during the sample period,mainly from the contribution of technological progress.The efficiency of personal agent and bancassurance has increased by 1.2% and 0.1% annually,respectively.The main reason is technological progress,and the technological efficiency has hardly changed.The main factors to promote technological progress include organizational innovation,production innovation,product and service innovation,specialization and so on.The efficiency of direct marketing channel decreased by an average of 1% annually,mainly due to adverse changes in technological progress.3.In terms of the factors influencing the efficiency,the opening time,the total number of employees,the proportion of highly educated employees and product concentration of life insurance companies have significant effects on the overall efficiency of marketing channels and the efficiencies of the three channels.The asset-liability ratio of the company has a significant impact on the overall efficiency and the efficiency of personal agent.The scale of assets has a significant impact on the efficiencies of the three channels.The nature of equity has a significant impact on the efficiencies of bancassurance and direct marketing channels,while the market interest rate level only has a significant impact on the efficiency of direct marketing channel.The innovations of this dissertation lie in:1.The classical theories of economics and management are used to study the efficiency of marketing channels in life insurance industry.In view of the limitation of the existing domestic literatures which is more applicable and less theoretical,this dissertation attempts to combine the efficiency thought in economics,the marketing theory in management with the actual situation of the marketing channels in China’s life insurance industry.This dissertation defines the efficiency of marketing channels of life insurance industry,analyses the main causes of the evolution and changes of marketing channels and the production process and characteristics of the main marketing channels,and innovates the theoretical and systematic research on improving the efficiency of marketing channels.2.Empirical analysis is used to measure and study the efficiency of marketing channels in life insurance industry.By comparing the methods of Financial Index Analysis and Frontier Analysis,as well as the specific methods of parametric analysis and non-parametric analysis in Frontier Analysis,the data envelope analysis method suitable for studying the efficiency of marketing channels is selected.Combining with the reality,this dissertation creatively incorporates the surrender value as the unexpected output of marketing channels into the efficiency measurement model,and strive to obtain more accurate efficiency evaluation results.3.This dissertation puts forward the multi-perspective and multi-factor theory of influencing factors of marketing channels’ efficiency.There are many empirical studies on the influencing factors of the efficiency of life insurance companies in domestic literature,but few empirical studies on the influencing factors of the marketing channels efficiency of life insurance industry.Based on the former research ideas and methods and the actual situation of marketing channels in China,this dissertation puts forward the multi-perspective and multi-factor theory of influencing factors of marketing channels efficiency,and comprehensively analyses the influencing ways of various factors at macro,industry and micro levels on marketing channels efficiency.The empirical results show that market interest rate level,company’s asset size,opening time,asset-liability ratio,product concentration and other factors have an important impact on the efficiency of marketing channels.4.On the basis of summarizing the evolution course and reasons of marketing channels,and combining with the empirical analysis results,this dissertation puts forward relevant suggestions for improving the efficiency of the main channels in traditional and emerging marketing channels in the future.Especially aiming at the advantages and disadvantages of internet marketing channel,this dissertation puts forward some suggestions,such as technology integration and application,product innovation,marketing mode innovation,service innovation and risk prevention,which are helpful to promote the efficiency of marketing channels.The shortcomings of this dissertation are as follows:1.The research on marketing channel efficiency and its influencing factors of life insurance industry involves not only economic theory,but also management theory.Because of the limited theoretical foundation and level of the author,the theoretical research on marketing channels,especially in the field of management,is not deep enough.2.Although this dissertation establishes an empirical analysis system for the study of marketing channel efficiency and its influencing factors and uses data to measure them,some indicators have to adopt alternative variables because the data can’t be obtained directly.Therefore,the scientific and accuracy of empirical research on marketing channel efficiency and influencing factors need to be further optimized.It is believed that with the improvement of data in the future,the research results will be more accurate,and the explanatory ability and reference value will be further improved. |
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