Digital agendas in the insurance industry: the importance of comprehensive approaches†

Abstract

With a growing awareness of the potential of innovation provided by digital technology, insurance companies have increasingly adopted digital agendas in their business activities. Our paper studies the relationship between the expression of a digital agenda in annual reports and the business performance of 41 publicly-traded European insurance companies for the time period from 2007 to 2017. Our findings show a positive relationship, which is particularly strong in cases where companies take a comprehensive approach by addressing digital technology both in the context of internal activities within their own organisation and external activities in connection with customers and business partners.