Designing the conceptual model for the assessment of entrepreneurial opportunities in life insurance industry: The case of Iran

The aim of this research is to design a conceptual model for the assessment of entrepreneurial opportunities in Iran life insurance industry. The research was performed in 2011 and 2012, in Tehran, Iran. The research method was mixed methods approach. In qualitative part, semi-structured interviews were done with life insurance experts (both academic experts and administrative experts). The interviews were analyzed through open, axial and selective coding method and the opportunity assessment criteria were derived from the interviews. In axial coding stage, 36 criteria were derived and classified into 8 general factors including “human resource, available and required administrative capabilities”, “product”, “target market and demographic groups”, “laws, regulations, and administrative infrastructures”, “threat of competitors”, “profitability of the opportunity”, “barriers to enter” and “ambiguity and uncertainty in the market”. The criteria were drafted into a questionnaire to assess the importance of each criterion in. The questionnaires were distributed among 120 life insurance managers of insurance companies’ main branches in Tehran. The validity of the questionnaire was tested through Cronbach's alpha test (alpha=0.93). SPSS software and factor analysis method were used to analyze the quantitative data. After factor analysis, another factor named “entrepreneurial strategy” was added. Finally, the conceptual model for assessment of entrepreneurial opportunities in Iran life insurance industry was designed based on mentioned 9 factors. Based on the study results, the “human resources, available and required administrative capabilities” and “target market and demographic groups” factors were the most important factors to assess the entrepreneurial opportunities of Iran life insurance industry.