Baranauskas, Gedas

The phenomenon of digitization, digitalization, and customization became an operational and service platform standard, widely spread within the previous decade in the financial sector, but seems to be not enough balanced in the insurance service field. Here these domains had latency and strong implications mostly at the strategical planning level and in primary activities of the insurance specific-value chain. Accordingly, a multidimensional and cross-border scientific analysis of the effects and outcomes of digitalization and customization domains in the insurance industry, platforms, and consumers behavior is required. This particular chapter aims to synthesize and conceptualize consumer decision-making and technology acceptance models and frameworks, applicable to digital insurance platforms management. The conducted empirical investigation and statistical analysis resulted in a reveal of behavioral patterns and influential factors of decision-making of Baltic insurance consumers in digital insurance platforms and validation of a conceptual digital insurance consumer decision-making process framework.

Recent results of the Digital Economy and Society Index (52, 45%) and the European Index of Digital Entrepreneurship Systems (EIDES) (48%) illustrate an improved level of the digital performance in European Union countries and a significant progress towards unlocking the productivity of digital value co-creation and collaborative networks. It is also agreed that the rapid digitalization of the economy and the digital entrepreneurship approach fosters a transition of traditional business models to networked and integrated digital platform business models. Despite the well-recognized benefits of the digital entrepreneurship and the digital business ecosystem, application of emerging technologies and modern business models also brings inevitable sustainable management challenges. The main negative outcomes are in the disruption or exposure of vulnerabilities within collaborative organizational and social networks, the additional socio-technical pressure for both network supervisors and incumbents, and the asymmetry of digital information and resources, etc. Therefore, the present research provides a critical review on the scientific literature, a reconceptualization within the multi-level side effects, and an overview of the influence of the digital entrepreneurship within the sustainability and digital business ecosystem domains. The present paper delineates the sustainable digital entrepreneurship term and the combined conceptual framework of the digital sustainable value cycle.

Purpose – Basing on theoretical analysis, the paper aims to reveal the challenges of customer satisfaction evaluation in the context of business-to-business model. The authors analyze academic insights on business-to- business (B2B) and business-to-customer (B2C) models, their interpretation and reveal the reasons for uniform model of customer satisfaction assessment lacking and offer solutions to find solutions to these challenges. Design/methodology/approach – The research paper stands for a qualitative research approach, which compounds qualitative content analysis and synthesis of scientific literature and conceptual modeling. The conceptual modeling part follows a simplified Robinson (2008a, 2008b, 2015) conceptual modeling framework and logic of Logical data flow diagrams (DFDs). Findings – The article showed that traditional service quality evaluation models have considerable content differences between criteria proposed in those models and cover only high-level needs and limited evaluation perspectives to compare to the existing modern business environment and practical needs in service quality assessment and management. Also, notable differences of focus area (organization, product/service or customer) between traditional and other service quality evaluation models impose uncertainty for businesses in practice, making it hard to assess what criteria to follow when aiming to improve customer satisfaction. Research limitations/implications – The research paper has both methodological and theoretical limitations, which should be considered as future research directions and improvements. Methodologically, the paper is missing a more comprehensive literature review of the theoretical background and relationships between B2B and service quality models as well as a bibliometric analysis of these research domains' outcomes and dynamics. From a theoretical content perspective, continuous semantical analysis is required by performing a comparative type of analysis of the existing legal base and legal interpretations of key terms in B2B, service quality, and customer satisfaction research domains as well as research subject analysis from customer’s perspective. Practical implications – The conducted analysis resulted in critical theoretical findings and conceptual models towards management and measurement of modern customer satisfaction, loyalty, and service quality within B2B operational models. These findings can be implied as a standpoint both for future scientific research and practical discussion within quality assurance managers and specialists. Originality/Value – Customer satisfaction assessment guidelines are sparse in academic literature since there are lots of ambiguities when discussing customer position and needs in accordance with business relationship models (e. g. B2B, B2C). This paper essentially seeks to find answers to such issues as how a uniform B2B customer satisfaction assessment model may be built which would respond to the customer's needs and would also allow the organization to respond to changing market by meeting organization-centered service quality criteria.

The expansion of online distribution platforms illustrates how non-life insurance companies are shifting to digital and customized personal line insurance products. This research extends previous investigations on digital insurance transformations and customization trends in the European and Baltic markets. Expert-based evidence on predominant as-is features in existing non-life insurance online platforms and evaluation on a practical spread of 3 capabilities of the Mass Customization concept are key research outcomes. Results reveal that neither the Mass Customization concept and its capabilities nor combinations with digital and personalization solutions are sufficiently widespread within the Baltic non-life insurance market. Results of the digitalization evaluation indicate that the level in the Baltic non-life insurance sector is between Satisfied and Rather Good and is equal to the level of service provider’s preparation for digital solutions. However, it is behind the actual needs of end-users. Findings show that standardization is a predominant as-is feature in the Baltic non-life insurance online platforms.

Multifold effects of the COVID-19 global health crisis and economic lockdowns are reflected in the insurance industry, and are predicted to expand to the post-COVID-19 era. It is expected that, within a short period of time, the current worldwide situation, in regards to the coronavirus pandemic, will be reflected in new trends, regarding customer behavior, organizational management, and culture, as well as reveal improved business management models, legacy infrastructure, and service systems in insurance organizations. Here, a focus on end-user preferences, data, and their behavior modeling in digital platforms are major practical drivers within the modern insurance concept, but there is a paucity of researches within the theoretical synthesis of consumer decision-making (CDM) models, information system theories, and behavioral economics concerning modern insurance-specific value chains and digitalized decision-making processes. Therefore, the following research aims to expand upon the existing scientific knowledge of end-user behavioral patterns and process frameworks in the Baltic insurance market, by including and examining a factor group of technological enablers and a digital environment. Research results in digitalization, personalization, and customization levels within the Baltic non-life insurance market are homogenous with a leading position of Estonia and overall evaluations ranging between Satisfied and Rather Good. There are also three major factor groups and process stages identified, which influence insurance purchase decision-making in digital insurance platforms in the Baltic market.

The Baltic non-life insurance market has not only continued recording a dynamic premium growth in the past three years but also has shown a significant transition to digital technologies and solutions. Here, the development of customised insurance products and systems, assessment of claims, and creation of personalised customer experience can be considered best practices in the application of theoretical concepts and, accordingly, require continuous studies from a scientific point of view. Therefore, the following research aims to present an as-is status of existing solutions of digital insurance platforms in Baltic countries and to clarify their compatibility with customisation, personalisation, and value co-creation features at the practical product and functional levels. Accordingly, a case-study method following a combination of a descriptive embedded single-case design and the state-of-the-art method was applied in the analysis of the non-life insurance market, its e-channel environment, and platforms of three Baltic countries — Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. The multidimensional assessment matrix has been designed to present the results of the case study analysis on the practical product and functional levels. Research results refer to an assumption that ideas and methods of Mass Customisation and Mass Personalisation concepts, as well as their combination with digital solutions, penetrate the analysed part of the non-life insurance market in the Baltic countries and result in a mutually useful outcome for insurance companies and end-users. The paper contributes to further theoretical investigation of digitalisation and digital transformation of the non-life insurance market in the Baltic countries, as well as the development of practical knowledge in combined management and IT solutions application.

Researchers of the Mass Customization domain face not only challenges of proper and timeless identification of latest practical trends, but also difficulties in rational analyses on the numerous existing scientific studies in this field as well as a need for a comprehensive and multidimensional state-of-the-art overview of the Mass Customization research domain in the last three decades. Therefore, the present research article aims to provide a critical standpoint and reveal the main research directions and content at systemic, bibliometric and historical research levels in the period of 1990-2020. Four types of bibliometric clustering techniques and a visualization of results in a format of two-dimensional maps by the VOSviewer software were applied in the analysis on 1783 scientific papers from the Clarivate Analytics Web of Science Core Collection. The analysis reveals six historical periods in the Mass Customization research domain, from which, in the last three decades, three are identified as influencing modern Mass Customization research areas and objects. Results confirmed a shift from a stand-alone scientific approach to the customization of tangible products in the manufacturing field and their risk management, to a hybrid scientific approach with a focus on the customization of non-tangible products and personalized customer behavior in online environments.

This paper summarizes the main theoretical points within the scientific discussion on the issue of digitalization in Mass Customization concept and online Mass Customization frameworks. Origins of a stand-alone Mass Customization concept drawback to the second half of the 1990s, but major theoretical content changes and development have been identified in the last 2 decades. An intensive application of combined technology and management solutions, digital society and business transformations in the past decade has shifted the orientation of the concept to intangible products management, customer involvement and mutual value creation via frameworks in the online environment. The main purpose of the research is to reveal and present the role and impact of the digitalization sub-domain to the Mass Customization concept, its transition to the e-concept version and modelling of new combined online customization frameworks. The decision relevance of this scientific problem is multiple issues in transitions of practical organizations to the modern and mixed technological-management approach-based Mass Customization version as well as application limitations of existing online customization frameworks. The analysis of the research topic is carried out in the logical sequence. Firstly, the author presented the influence of the digitalization sub-domain to theoretical transformations of traditional Mass Customization concept. Then, a case study of the organizational transition to electronic Mass Customization and Personalization and online customization frameworks was conducted. Methodological tools and research methods used in the paper have been integrative literature review and narrative synthesis of qualitative findings of 53 articles, and a simplified Robinson conceptual modelling framework together with a c-tuple method for the simulation of new combined online customization frameworks. The research empirically confirms and theoretically proves that within last decade both practical and academic attention to sustainable and agile development of new, fully digital customized products and personalized services as well as flexible online customization frameworks and solutions significantly have increased. Furthermore, here the extent by 6 new online customization frameworks is offered next to 3 standard theoretical online customization frameworks, which became difficult to apply in the environment and preferences of modem e-business organizations and digital end-users. The results of the research can be useful for continuous scientific researches to test and validate 6 new online customization frameworks in a feedback loop part and evaluate the influence of these frameworks to a digital end-user behaviour, their role in frameworks and attitude aspects.

The paper is based on a scientific literature analysis and, by examining scientific insights, it focuses on the assumption that Big Data Analytics (BDA) is an alternative used in modern organizations in decision making at e-mass service customization. An overall orientation to BDA application in management processes is presented as a useful construct not only for improving the decision-making procedure but also as a relevant source for strategic planning, process and cost optimization activities as well as for changes in supply chain and risk management. The data was obtained through the scientific literature analysis and systematized theoretical insights of the BDA influence in both possibility and obstacle dimensions to e-mass service customization.