Title: Role of development officers in the marketing of public sector health insurance policies in India

Authors: S.A. Senthilkumar; Bharatendra K. Rai; Angappa Gunasekaran; Laura Forker

Addresses: Charlton College of Business, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, 285 Old Westport Road, North Dartmouth, MA 02747-2300, USA ' Charlton College of Business, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, 285 Old Westport Road, North Dartmouth, MA 02747-2300, USA ' Charlton College of Business, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, 285 Old Westport Road, North Dartmouth, MA 02747-2300, USA ' Charlton College of Business, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, 285 Old Westport Road, North Dartmouth, MA 02747-2300, USA

Abstract: Health insurance is the fastest growing portfolio in Indian insurance. Due to its rapid growth, health insurance is treated now as a separate category by the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI). However in India, only 18% of people are covered under any health insurance policy. Hence, there is great opportunity for further growth of the health insurance market in India. Marketing health insurance policies involves unique practices compared to marketing any other product, because health insurance policies are service products and intangible by nature. This study uses primary data collected from 300 development officers as well as secondary data and analyses them with the help of discriminant function analysis (DFA) to identify the key personal and organisational characteristics that influence the performance of the development officers in the marketing of public sector health insurance policies in India.

Keywords: health insurance; development officer; public sector general insurance; discriminant function analysis; DFA; insurance regulatory and development authority of India; IRDAI.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBIR.2017.085779

International Journal of Business Innovation and Research, 2017 Vol.14 No.1, pp.39 - 58

Received: 10 Jun 2015
Accepted: 17 Aug 2015

Published online: 14 Aug 2017 *

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