Entrepreneurs play a central role in economic growth and development, but how they do so is the subject of considerable debate. This book explains that process through an historical case study of an automobile insurance entrepreneur, Samuel P. Black, Jr., and Erie Insurance, the company he helped build. It also recounts the largely untold history of American automobile insurance. One of this study's central themes is the role of innovation in the entrepreneurial process. The rise of Erie Insurance from a four-person enterprise in Erie, Pennsylvania, in 1925 to the fourteenth largest property-casualty insurer today was the result, in part, of Black's relentless push to innovate. His continual efforts to cut costs, develop new products, satisfy customers, increase sales, and improve operations, all contributed greatly to the company's growth. A second theme is the automobile's dramatic impact on modern America. Its takeover of mass transportation provided the basis for the development of the automobile insurance industry and created many of the opportunities that Black and Erie Insurance capitalized on. These themes combine in the history of Black and Erie Insurance to illuminate the dynamic process by which the cultural, social, economic, and technological environment creates opportunities that entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial firms exploit, and how entrepreneurial actions stimulate economic growth.

The emergent business model literature, revolving mainly around the mechanisms through which new business models create and deliver value, has left the value capture challenge under-explored. This paper examines how an incumbent firm profits from business model innovation through the study of Pay-As-You-Drive auto-insurance. Although business models do not warrant formal intellectual property (IP) protection, their constituent components (e.g. business methods and brands) often do. Drawing on the profiting-from-innovation framework, we find that formal and strategic IP protection methods play complementary roles. Initially, formal IP rights are used primarily as a defensive strategy, as vehicles for packaging and trading know-how, and most importantly as a means of “buying time” to build specialised complementary assets. Long-term competitiveness, however, depends on whether the innovator builds a strong position in specialised complementary assets and is capable of reconfiguring them over time in line with changes in the market environment. Thus, we explicate the complex mechanism and dynamic capability for capturing value from business model innovation.

Studienarbeit aus dem Jahr 2016 im Fachbereich BWL - Bank, Börse, Versicherung, University of Westminster, Veranstaltung: MSc Finance, Banking and Insurance, Sprache: Deutsch, Abstract: The future may be uncertain and hard to predict, but it should not be hard to prepare for. Internet and other digital platforms have transformed the way people interact and how they do business in almost all sectors of the economy. This has led to far-reaching challenges and innovations that could have an impact on both current and future of numerous economic sectors. In insurance, for instance, a sector which has remained largely the same for more than three decades, it has a great influence on its value chain right from production, sales and distribution to claims and payments. This report examines self-driving cars, a digital innovation involving vehicles with the capacity to sense their environment and navigate through the pathways without human driver inputs. Their ability to analyze sensory data that in return enables them distinguish between different cars in the road increases driving efficacy and as a result likely to alter current state of both automobile and life insurance industry substantially because of the likelihood that their adoption will significantly reduce the number of traffic accidents as majority of road accidents traditionally are perceived to be caused by driver error/negligence consequently shrinking insurance bills and claims for customers. This study further examines how this innovation (autonomous cars) would influence insurance markets/business while exploring the various responses which the insurance industry has/will put in place to help cope with these changes in the future to enable them to remain sustainably relevant in the market.

The definitive compendium for the Insurance Digital Revolution From slow beginnings in 2014, InsurTech has captured US$7billion in investment since 2010 — a 10% annual compound growth rate is predicted until at least 2020. Three in four insurance companies believe some part of their business is at risk of disruption and understanding the trends, drivers and emerging technologies behind Insurance’s Digital Revolution is a business-critical priority for all growth-minded firms. The InsurTech Book offers essential updates, critical thinking and actionable insight — globally — from start-ups, incumbents, investors, tech companies, advisors and other partners in this evolving ecosystem, in one volume. For some, Insurance is either facing an existential threat; for others, it is a sector on the brink of transforming itself. Either way, business models, value chains, customer understanding and engagement, organisational structures and even what Insurance is for, is never going to be the same. Be informed, be part of it. Learn from diverse experiences, mindsets and applications of technologies Discover new ways of defining and grasping growth opportunities Get the inside track from innovators, disruptors and incumbents Be updated on the evolution of InsurTech, why it is happening and how it will evolve Explore visions of the future of Insurance to help shape yours The InsurTech Book is your indispensable guide to a sector in transformation.

This book explores the ways in which the adoption of new paradigms, processes, and technologies can lead to greater revenue, cost efficiency and control, as well as improved business agility in the insurance industry.

This book presents a collection of interrelated research advances in the field of technological entrepreneurship from the perspective of competition in emerging markets. Featuring contributions by scholars from different fields of interest, it provides a mix of theoretical developments, insights and research methods used to uncover the unexplored aspects of competitiveness in emerging markets in an age characterized by disruptive technologies.