Self-assessment of driving style and the willingness to share personal information

The availability of better behavioral information about their customer portfolios holds the promise for different and more accurate pricing models for insurers. Changes in pricing, however, are always fraught with danger for insurers, as they enter long-term commitments with incomplete historical information. On the other hand, sharing personal information is still viewed with skepticism by consumers. Which type of personal information are consumers willing to share with insurers, and for what purpose? How would they like to be rewarded for this openness? For insurers, how will the transition shift their risk portfolios? This paper addresses these questions for auto insurance, particularly how the self-assessment of one’s driving style impacts this dynamic. In a survey of approximately 900 Swiss residents, we found that offering a compensation, especially premium discounts, but also services, significantly improves willingness to share information. Higher trust in insurance increases sharing. Women and younger people are more willing to share information. On the other hand, customers are less willing to disclose, to insurers, information not traditionally associated with insurance. The self-assessment of driving style also plays a significant role. More risk-averse driving styles are correlated with higher sharing. Conversely, riskier driving styles are correlated with lower sharing. This result is significant for insurers, as new data-driven pricing and services models should tend to attract less risky customer portfolios

Customer preferences and implicit tradeoffs in accident scenarios for self-driving vehicle algorithms

The development of self-driving vehicles is proceeding rapidly and with significant investment of resources. However, a full-scale deployment is not imminent. Among the challenges self-driving vehicles are facing, they will have to navigate complex ethical challenges. The algorithms governing their behavior will have to decide how to steer them in situations where accidents cannot be avoided. In some of these situations they will have to decide which of several potential parties to injure in the process. We investigate the preferences of Swiss customers for this decision by forcing a selection between simplified scenarios where a given number of car passengers or a given number of pedestrians will be killed in the accident. Both passengers and pedestrians can be adults or children. The passengers are explicitly identified as the respondent themselves and their family. While children are implicitly valued higher than adults, Swiss customers value passengers and pedestrians implicitly roughly equally, and assign increasingly higher marginal values to additional people, both passengers and pedestrians. These results seem to partially contradict similar studies conducted in other countries and recent statements by automotive companies, potentially indicating the need to adapt both corporate communications and steering algorithms in different geographies

Real-time services in insurance : industry priorities and customer attitudes in the Swiss insurance market

In the insurance sector, more and more data are available. This poses new questions for insurance companies and their business models. Leveraging data enables insurers to improve risk management, customize products and services, and explore new forms of relationships with their policyholders. On the other hand, organizations from outside the industry, with better and direct access to relevant data, seek opportunities to enter the market. This study focuses on this dynamic and explores the underlying question of the overall direction of data-driven services in the Swiss insurance market. Our study was conducted in three steps. First, we interviewed a small group of experts to identify and discuss relevant issues. Second, we surveyed a broader set of industry experts to provide insights into the industry perspective. Third, we surveyed some 1,400 policyholders in Switzerland to understand the perspective of individual customers. As our results show, industry experts are aligned with customers’ long-term priorities on convenience and risk management. Nevertheless, insurance companies currently mainly focus on short-term cost-cutting measures and process improvements. Customers in Switzerland view insurance providers quite favorably. This perception opens a window of opportunity to develop additional services in spite of customers’ reluctance to share personal information in general. This window may not remain open indefinitely, as customers tend to be open to sourcing, especially in terms of the more important services from non-insurance providers

Leading in Switzerland and Poland : a case study of leadership practices in financial services

Leading across national borders is a challenge, partly due to the cultural differences among employees in different locations. We investigate this dynamic for employees of a Swiss financial services company located in Switzerland and in Poland by surveying employees about their leadership expectations and experiences, as well as about their cultural values. We find that the leadership expectations of employees in these two locations do not differ significantly. However, their experience does, indicating the opportunity for further development of local Polish management practices and leadership behavior, and underlying the importance of local leadership development. In addition, we find that a few cultural dimensions have a significant impact on leadership expectations in both countries, indicating the opportunity to further refine situational leadership behavior throughout the organization independently of location. While organizations spanning across Western and Central European locations need to deal with significant differences in cultural and leadership expectation, our results suggest that they can effectively align leadership practices and thus mitigate the practical challenges arising from these differences

Les PME suisses face aux cyberrisques : une enquête sure les attituedes des employés e les failles comportementales

Les attaques cybernétiques constituent un problème de plus en plus sensible pour les PME suisses. Près d’un tiers d’entre elles ont en déjà été victimes, et quatre pour cent ont fait l’objet d’un chantage subséquent. Dans la plupart des cas, les problèmes ont commencé par des attaques par hameçonnage, les malfaiteurs ayant exploité une erreur ou une négligence d’un employé pour accéder au système informatique. Nous avons interrogé de nombreux salariés de PME suisses afin de comprendre comment leur attitude face aux attaques cybernétiques peut influer sur cette vulnérabilité et de suggérer des mesures correctives concrètes. Les entretiens ont été menés sur la base de métaphores profondes afin de comprendre les moteurs culturels et émotionnels cachés du comportement, plutôt que les éléments rationnels visibles. Nous avons élaboré trois recommandations pour tirer parti de la culture proactive des PME et réduire la dépendance aux prestataires tiers: sensibiliser, responsabiliser les employés et concevoir un mode de reprise

Cyberrisiken und Schweizer KMU : eine Untersuchung der Einstellungen von Mitarbeitenden und verhaltensbedingter Anfälligkeiten

Cyberangriffe sind ein zunehmend signifikantes Problem für Schweizer KMU. Etwa ein Drittel von ihnen war bereits Opfer von Cyberangriffen, und vier Prozent wurden infolgedessen erpresst. Die meisten dieser Probleme begannen mit Phishing-Angriffen, wobei Kriminelle durch Ausnutzung eines Fehlers oder Versehens seitens eines Mitarbeitenden Zugang zum IT-System gewannen. Wir haben mehrere Mitarbeitende von Schweizer KMU befragt, um zu verstehen, wie ihre Einstellungen zu Cyberangriffen diese Anfälligkeit beeinflussen können, und um praktische Verbesserungsvorschläge zu entwickeln. Die Interviews wurden mit Hilfe des «Tiefen-Metaphern»-Ansatzes durchgeführt, um die verborgenen kulturellen und emotionalen Antriebskräfte für ihr Verhalten, statt nur die rationalen und sichtbaren Komponenten zu verstehen. Dann entwickelten wir drei Empfehlungen, um die bei KMU herrschende proaktive Unternehmenskultur zu nutzen und ihre Abhängigkeit von externen Lieferanten zu reduzieren: Bewusstsein schärfen, Mitarbeitende befähigen und den Wiederherstellungsmodus üben

Rischi informatici e PMI svizzere : un`indagine sugli atteggiamenti dei dipendenti e sulle vulnerabilità comportamentali

Gli attacchi informatici rappresentano un problema sempre più rilevante per le PMI svizzere: circa un terzo di esse è già stato vittima di attacchi informatici e il 4% è stato successivamente ricattato. Questi problemi sono iniziati perlopiù con attacchi di phishing, in seguito ai quali elementi criminali hanno ottenuto accesso al sistema IT sfruttando un errore o una disattenzione dei dipendenti. Abbiamo intervistato numerosi dipendenti di PMI svizzere per comprendere in quale modo i loro atteggiamenti nei confronti degli attacchi informatici possano influire su questa vulnerabilità e per elaborare suggerimenti pratici per interventi correttivi. Le interviste sono state condotte utilizzando metafore profonde allo scopo di comprendere i fattori culturali ed emotivi nascosti del comportamento, piuttosto che le componenti razionali visibili. Abbiamo elaborato tre raccomandazioni per fare leva sulla cultura proattiva delle PMI e ridurre la loro dipendenza da fornitori terzi: aumentare la consapevolezza, responsabilizzare i dipendenti ed esercitarsi a lavorare in modalità di ripristino

Cyber risks and Swiss SMEs : an investigation of employee attitudes and behavioral vulnerabilities

Cyber attacks are an increasingly significant issue for Swiss SMEs. About one third have already experienced cyber attacks, and four percent have been blackmailed as a result. Most of these problems began with phishing attacks, where criminal elements gained access to the IT system by exploiting an employee error or oversight. We interviewed several employees of Swiss SMEs to understand how their attitudes towards cyber attacks may affect this vulnerability and to develop practical suggestions for corrective action. The interviews were conducted using deep metaphors to understand the hidden cultural and emotional drivers of behavior rather than the rational, visible components. We developed three recommendations to take advantage of the proactive culture at SMEs and decrease their dependence on third-party providers: raise awareness, empower employees, and train a recovery mode

Data-driven services in insurance : potential evolution and impact in the Swiss market

Using real-time customer data holds great potential for the insurance industry. The frequency and relevance of interactions can be improved to provide assistance in real time. Better prevention and risk management can significantly improve pricing and reduce losses. These changes, however, hold the potential for structural changes in the industry. This research aims at understanding the potential path of the development of services in insurance and the challenges faced by insurers. A panel of industry experts provided the industry’s view, which was then compared with the responses of 1542 Swiss retail customers. We find that customers have high trust in insurance companies and are open to purchasing additional services, particularly for prevention and assistance. Insurance companies, however, are currently focusing on cost improvement measures. Customers are open to sourcing services from other providers, suggesting that insurance companies need to evolve their approach to take advantage of the current market window