ONLINE CHANNEL USAGE INTENT BY INSURANCE AGENTS IN AN EMERGING MARKET CONTEXT

Abstract

Insurance is a complex product and is normally sold through intermediaries like individual insurance agents, corporate insurance agents, or an insurance broker. The new trend in insurance marketing is to sell the insurance policies through the Internet. Though the Internet is changing the way customers engage with insurers, traditional channels remain important. The agent intermediaries continue to play a crucial role in the sales cycle in India. The present study looks at the online channel adoption intent of the insurance agents for their work related activities through the development of e-consumption model. Our e-consumption model has taken variables from the existing literature like System Quality, Information Quality Perceived Usefulness, Perceived Ease of Use to understand the agents’ technological self-efficacy and has introduced motivating and coercing role of the insurer viz., Management Intervention in terms of training for technology and information access mandated by the company through the Agents’ Portal. It is found that the motivating role of the insurer is i.e., training for technology is more effective in influencing behavioural intention than the coercive role namely info access mandated by the insurer. It is also found that System quality and information quality of insurance company websites play a crucial role in determining the PEOU and PU via Perceived Benefits.