Electronic Integration and Strategic Advantage: A Quasi-Experimental Study in the Insurance Industry

N. Venkatraman and Akbar Zaheer
Additional contact information
N. Venkatraman: Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139
Akbar Zaheer: Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139

Information Systems Research, 1990, vol. 1, issue 4, 377-393

Abstract: Strategic advantage through information technology is a popular and an important theme, but the extent of research support is minimal, anecdotal, and sporadic. This paper reports the results of a quasi-experimental study on the impact of dedicated electronic integration [between a focal insurance carrier and its independent agents in the property and casualty (P&C) market] for the focal carrier. The results indicate that the agents that are electronically interfaced with the carrier report improvements in a set of four performance factors in the expected direction (six months after system installation), but statistically different from a matched set of non-interfaced agents (based on size, state, and location category) only in terms of increases in new business policies, but not in terms of effectiveness —namely, neither increases in premiums and commissions nor operating efficiency . Some explanations, extensions and research implications are outlined.

Keywords: electronic integration; strategic advantage; insurance industry; electronic interfacing; quasi-experimental study (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1990
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (12)

Downloads: (external link)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/isre.1.4.377 (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:inm:orisre:v:1:y:1990:i:4:p:377-393

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Information Systems Research from INFORMS Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Asher ().