Nick Palmer, Scott Tanner, Christine Detrick and Ingo Wagner
The purpose of this article is to identify what truly propels property and casualty insurance industry leaders to reach their peak performance.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this article is to identify what truly propels property and casualty insurance industry leaders to reach their peak performance.
Design/methodology/approach
Selection: from an initial list of 706 insurers worldwide, the authors screened for publicly held companies that derived at least 60 percent of their annual revenues from sales of property and casualty products and for which at least five years of detailed financial data were available. The final sample included only companies from advanced economies of North America, Europe and Australia, for a total of 86 insurers. Variables: the regression analysis investigated possible correlations between total shareholder returns and 17 measures of business mix and financial performance, including total revenue growth, total net premium growth and profitability growth. Time period: The authors ran tests on data covering the decade from 1994 through the end of 2004.
Findings
Consistent, sustainable revenue growth is the surest path to superior shareholder returns.
Practical implications
What sets the top performers in the insurance industry apart is an ability to master two of today's thorniest growth challenges: (1) high‐performance insurers cultivate organic growth by identifying their most valuable customers and investing to increase sales to them; by recruiting new clients through referrals and by lifting retention rates; (2) insurers that rely on mergers and acquisitions to boost revenues make regular, modest‐sized deals to add real value, and they integrate their new acquisitions quickly and seamlessly.
Originality/value
Property and casualty insurers that achieve top‐quartile revenue growth and produce exceptional returns for shareholders weave organic growth and acquisitions into a virtuous cycle of revenue expansion, pursuing deals that reinforce their ability to deliver customer value.
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Randall Smith, Julia Johnson and Sheena Rolph
The purpose of this paper is to examine the history of pet ownership and its relationship to wellbeing in later life. In particular, the paper addresses the issue of pet ownership…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the history of pet ownership and its relationship to wellbeing in later life. In particular, the paper addresses the issue of pet ownership in communal residential settings for older people both now and in the past, comparing attitudes, policies, and practices in regard to pets in the late 1950s with the early years of the twenty‐first century.
Design/methodology/approach
Following a review of the research literature on older people and companion animals, the paper draws on new data derived from recent research conducted by the authors. It compares archived material on the residential homes for older people that Peter Townsend visited in the late 1950s as part of his classic study, The Last Refuge (1962), with findings from revisiting a sample of these homes 50 years later. The authors employed the same methods as Townsend (observation together with interviews with managers and residents).
Findings
The historical dimension of the research reveals ambivalence both in the past and in present times in respect of residents' pets in care homes. Top‐down controlling regimes in the past have been replaced by concerns about health and safety and the need to strike a balance between rights, risks, and responsibilities. The variations in current policy and practice in England and Wales seem to reflect the subjective views and experiences of care home managers and proprietors. The lesson seems to be that care home owners should be expected to have an explicit policy in regard to the keeping of companion animals, but one that is not dictated by law.
Originality/value
The longitudinal data drawn on in this paper add a new perspective to research on older people and pets in care homes.
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Ashok Ranchhod and Adam Palmer
This case study was made possible by the co‐operation of the managing director of Cosyfeet, Mr David Price, to whom we are very grateful. The case was prepared as a basis for…
Abstract
This case study was made possible by the co‐operation of the managing director of Cosyfeet, Mr David Price, to whom we are very grateful. The case was prepared as a basis for class discussion and as an illustration of what may or may not constitute success in a small business context.
Elizabeth Welch, Sinead Palmer, Ann-Marie Towers and Nick Smith
The purpose of this paper is to explore whether relatives of care home residents are best placed to act as “champions” or advocates for their family members, as is often the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore whether relatives of care home residents are best placed to act as “champions” or advocates for their family members, as is often the expectation.
Design/methodology/approach
Focus groups and interviews were conducted with 25 relatives of residents in four care homes for older people in the South East of England. Two rounds of focus groups were held in each participating care home: the first was to discuss any issues arising from the care received, or concerns about the home itself; the second was to enable a deeper exploration of the key themes that arose from the first round and explore why relatives, in this case, failed to complain.
Findings
Thematic analysis revealed a complex range of emotions experienced by relatives that contributed to a conflict between what they believed to be the correct response and how they behaved in reality, which led to a culture of acceptance. Analysis revealed some relatives were reluctant to “interfere” for fear of possible negative repercussions, thus they downplayed issues in an attempt not to “rock the boat”.
Originality/value
This paper discusses the flaws in the policy emphasis on personalisation and the reliance on family members as advocates, and concludes with suggestions on how care homes may foster an environment where relatives, and indeed residents, feel comfortable to raise issues and concerns.
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Nick Smith, Ann-Marie Towers, Grace Collins, Sinead Palmer, Stephen Allan and Jennifer Beecham
Research in care homes requires the co-operation of care home managers. Noting the challenges faced by the care home sector, the purpose of this paper is to consider ways in which…
Abstract
Purpose
Research in care homes requires the co-operation of care home managers. Noting the challenges faced by the care home sector, the purpose of this paper is to consider ways in which research studies can encourage care home managers and their homes to participate in research.
Design/methodology/approach
The discussion is informed by two research projects which are used to explore methods of encouraging managers of care homes to participate in research. One of the studies included interviews with care home managers to understand their reasons for taking part in research.
Findings
This paper outlines and assesses three strategies for encouraging care home managers to participate in research: working in partnership, providing payment and providing personalised feedback on findings. Whereas all the strategies have the potential to encourage care home managers’ participation in research, partnership working in particular was found to be fraught with difficulties.
Research limitations/implications
This paper suggests that the research projects could employ any of these strategies to encourage managers of care homes to participate in research. It also suggests that proactive measures could help ameliorate the pitfalls of partnership working.
Originality/value
This paper shows the advantages and disadvantages of using a combination of strategies for encouraging the participation of care home managers in research.
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Following the recent paper by Palmer in Aslib Proceedings in which she discussed the changes taking place in agricultural information, this paper discusses the effect of recent…
Abstract
Following the recent paper by Palmer in Aslib Proceedings in which she discussed the changes taking place in agricultural information, this paper discusses the effect of recent government policy on personal advisory work. It seeks to demonstrate that state advisers and private consultants exhibit similar information‐related behaviour and share a relatively small clientele. Pressures of commercialisation on the public sector will increase competition which will be to the detriment of the public service as it will be unable to provide advice of the same intensity or quality as private consultants who can devote all of their time to their, relatively few, customers.
Despite the widespread studies on the attitudes about OA, there exists little comparative evidence about the opinions of author and non-author parties at a global level in a…
Abstract
Purpose
Despite the widespread studies on the attitudes about OA, there exists little comparative evidence about the opinions of author and non-author parties at a global level in a social context. To bridge the gap, this study first investigated the opinions of the users who posted at least one tweet about OA in 2019. Then, it zoomed in to explore the views of the OA-interested tweeters, i.e. the users who have posted five or more tweets about OA.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a content analysis method, with an opinion-mining approach, this study examined a sample of 9,268 OA-related tweets posted by 5,227 tweeters in 2019. The sentiments were analyzed using SentiStrength. A threshold of at least five tweets was set to identify the OA-interested tweeters.
Findings
Academics and scholars, library and information professionals, and journals and publishers were the main OA-interested tweeters, implying that OA debates have not been widely propagated from its traditional audience to the general public. Despite an overall positive attitude, the tweeters showed negative perspectives about the gold and hybrid models, validity and quality, and costs and funds. The negativity depended on the OA features tweeted, the tweeters' occupations and gender, as well as the trends.
Research limitations/implications
The low societal impact of the OA debates calls for solutions to attract the public's attention and to exploit their potential to achieve the OA ideals. The OA stakeholders' divergence necessitates finding solutions to remedy the pitfalls. It also underlines the need for scrutiny into social layers when studying society's opinions and behaviors in a social network.
Originality/value
This is the first study in estimating the extent of the societal impact of OA debates, comparing the social OA stakeholders' opinions and their dependence on the OA features tweeted, the tweeter roles and gender and the tweet trending status.
Peer review
The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-09-2022-0502