170 /342
壽險公司銀行保險通路策略會不會受到競爭者行為的影響：動態競爭觀點之探討
170
Effect of Competitors’ Activities on the Bancassurance Strategy of
Life Insurers: Competitive Dynamics Perspective
1. Introduction
The Financial Holding Company Act implemented in 2001 initiated the development of
bancassurance in Taiwan. Since then, related authorities have gradually loosened various
regulations concerning the selling of insurance products by banking institutions, thereby
flourishing the development of bancassurance. With banks serving as additional sales
channels, the competition environment of the overall life insurance market changes rapidly.
To increase the market share rate, insurance companies no longer have to spend extra time on
establishing agency channels; instead, they can collaborate with banks to acquire
bancassurance channels quickly, gaining substantial flexibility in application of channel
strategies.
Developments and changes in Taiwanese bancassurance channels create an excellent
environment for exploring sales channel strategies concerning life insurance products.
Therefore, this study adopted competitive dynamics as the basis to examine the relationship
between the bancassurance channel strategies of life insurance companies and their rivals’
behaviors. The competitive dynamics framework proposed by Chen et al. (1992) maintains
that when businesses observe that the actions of their rivals convey a notable or hidden
message, they evaluate the message and respond accordingly. For insurance companies,
bancassurance enables quick adjustment to related strategies, allowing them to adjust their
strategies immediately in response to the rivals’ adopted strategies.
Under competition dynamics, businesses that adopt similar operating modes, provide
similar products, and serve similar customers are viewed as rivals (Chen, 1996). Compared
with agency channels, bancassurance channels mostly involve integration of external
resources and enable flexible adjustment, with strategies focusing more on responding to
rivals’ behaviors. In addition, products and customer characteristics in bancassurance
channels offered by different banks are highly similar, resulting in high competition between
selections of such channels by insurance companies. High resource similarity leads to intense
Jin-Lung Peng
, Associate Professor, Department of Risk Management and Insurance, National Chengchi
University
Siao-Yun Wei
, Lecturer, Department of Banking and Finance, Chinese Culture University/Ph.D.
Candidate, Department of Risk Management and Insurance, National Chengchi University
Yen-Chih Chen
, Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Risk Management and Insurance, National Chengchi
University