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臺大管理論叢
第
27
卷第
2S
期
141
2. Contribution
This study continues the discussion on product quality hypothesis in terms of claim
service and proposes two contributions. First, we verify whether insurance brokers or agents
offer better claim service quality than the direct writer channel using claim data of Taiwan’s
voluntary auto third-party liability insurance. The results can compensate for the research
gap of past studies, which did not directly provide the evidence of claim service quality.
Second, the current study complements the prediction of Venezia et al. (1999) and the results
of Hsieh et al. (2014). The study also provides evidence for the phenomenon of the product
quality hypothesis and information asymmetry hypothesis coexisting in the insurance
market.
3. Data and Findings
This study obtained claim data of insured individuals on compulsory auto liability
insurance and voluntary auto third-party liability insurance from a large insurance company
in Taiwan. In total, 1,214 claim samples were used to verify whether insurance brokers or
agents outperformed the direct writer channel in terms of claim service in voluntary auto
third-party liability insurance. This study viewed claim amount and claim processing
efficiency as claim service variables. In considering the endogenous problem, which may
exist between claim service variables and marketing channels, we adopted a Hausman Test to
deal with the endogenous problem. Our results showed that in voluntary auto third-party
liability insurance claim cases from insurance brokers or agents, on average, each case was
NT$8,463 more than the direct writer channel in terms of claim amounts. These findings
propose that under the same degree of body injury, the claim amount coordinated by the
insurance broker or agent is significantly higher than that by the direct writer channel. This
result suggests that the insurance broker or agent outperformed the direct writer system in
earning higher claim amount for customers. The results also reveal that the capability of the
insurance broker or agent in earning a higher claim amount for customers rises further with
the increase in the degree of body injury of the victims. With respect to claim processing
efficiency, even if the injury degrees of injured persons were controlled, the study did not
find any evidence to support the view that insurance brokers or agents were better than the
direct writer channel in terms of claim service quality.