Study On The Influence Of Insurtech On The Layout Of Insurance Branches

During the "14th Five-Year Plan" period,our country enters a new development stage,which is characterized by digitalization,networking and intelligence.Insurance is an important means to protect economic and social risks,Under the guidance of the "Digital China" development strategy,insurtech has become the main driving force for the development of the insurance industry,and has profoundly changed the development mode and strategic layout of insurance branches.Insurance branches are the channels for insurance companies to serve customers,and the construction level of insurance branches directly determines the core competitiveness of insurance companies.However,with the rapid development of insurtech,insurance products and services are no longer limited to traditional offline branches,and insurance channels gradually show a trend of diversification.With the emergence of intelligent online channels,the growth and development of traditional offline insurance branches as direct service institutions of insurance business will be greatly affected.In the critical period of digital transformation,it is particularly important to study the relationship between insurtech and branches.Therefore,this paper will explore the influence of insurtech on the growth,layout and transformation of insurance offline branches through empirical methods.Firstly,this paper introduces the research background and literature research,reviews the four stages of the development of insurtech,and expounds the function positioning and level distribution of insurance branches.Secondly,based on the information asymmetry theory,insurance marketing theory,regional economic theory and transaction cost theory,this paper analyzes the influence mechanism of insurtech on the network branches of insurance companies.Thirdly,this paper takes 171 insurance companies from 2011 to 2020 as research samples,collates more than 80,000 pieces of insurance license information,empirically tests the influence of the development level of insurtech on the growth rate of insurance branches,and divides the types of insurance companies to explore the influence of insurtech on the branches expansion in different insurance companies.On this basis,the paper subdivides the branches into branch companies,central subsidiary companies,subsidiary companies,sales department,marketing service department and telephone sales center,and explores the influence of insurtech on the expansion of different types of branches.Finally,the paper also examines the further effects of company size,ownership nature,regulatory policies,regional differences and other factors on this effect.The empirical research results show that:(1)The development of insurtech has a significant impact on the branch growth rate of insurance companies.Specifically,the development of insurtech can inhibit the expansion of insurance companies’ offline branches,and this inhibitory effect is more obvious in life insurance companies.(2)After subdividing the types of insurance branches,the influence of insurtech on the growth rate of insurance companies’ branches mainly affects subsidiary company,business departments and telephone sales centers.(3)The influence of insurtech on the growth rate of insurance branches varies among companies with different asset sizes.The impact of insurtech on the growth rate of insurance branches varies among companies with different ownership nature.(4)The influence of insurtech on the growth rate of offline branches still exists after the stricter regulation and policy tightening.(5)In regions with different characteristics,such as economic development level,insurance development level and market competition degree,the effect of insurtech on the growth of offline branches is different.The research conclusions not only provide empirical evidence for a deep understanding of the relationship between insurtech and the growth rate of insurance branches under the background of digital transformation,but also help insurance companies to scientifically evaluate market demand and supply,and carry out targeted branch level construction and channel strategic layout.In addition,it makes up for the gap in the research of insurance branch and provides a supplement for the research of the influence of insurtech on the financial system.