23 research outputs found
Effects of Underwriting and Claims Management on Performance of Property and Casualty Insurance Companies in East Africa
Full text linkThe insurance sector plays an important role in service economy of any country by underwriting of risks inherent in most sectors thus providing a sense of peace to most economic entities. Performance of general insurance companies is expected to be related to various factors, including optimal underwriting and prompt and efficient claims management functions. This study investigated the effect of underwriting and claims management practices on the performance of general insurance firms in East Africa. The study employed multiple linear regression analysis using primary and secondary data collected from 82 general insurers in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. The findings show that there is a significant positive relationship between underwriting and claims management practices employed by the firms and non-financial performance, but the relationship with financial performance was insignificant. The implication is that a profit oriented insurance firm should embrace a claims function that is closely related with the underwriting and pricing of the firm’s portfolio for meaningful results. It is recommended that general insurance companies focus on other important factors besides underwriting and claims management order to improve overall financial performance
OAPEN-UK: an Open Access Business Model for Scholarly Monographs in the Humanities and Social Sciences
No full textThis paper presents the initial findings of OAPEN-UK, a UK research project gathering evidence on the social and technological impacts of an open access business model for scholarly monographs in the humanities and social sciences
Actuarial Risk Management Practices, Underwriting Risk and Performance of P & C Insurance Firms in East Africa
Full text linkThe purpose of the study was to establish the intervening effect of underwriting risk (loss ratio) on the relationship between actuarial risk management practices (ARMP) and performance of property and casualty (P & C) insurance underwriters in East Africa. Findings from primary and secondary data gathered from 82 general insurers from Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania show that there is a significant positive relationship between ARMP and non-financial performance and that loss ratio significantly mediates this relationship. The relationship with financial performance was however insignificant. The implication is that P & C insurance firms should keenly watch their loss ratios in order to improve their non-financial performance by correctly underwriting, pricing and reinsuring their risks in order to influence their claims ratio and also have a strategic claims management program in place that controls costs and leads to better firm reputation, which in turn will have ripple effect in increasing business volumes and performance. It is recommended that further empirical studies be carried out to establish other factors that especially influence financial performance
Mediating Effect of Strategy Implementation on the Relationship Between TMT Characteristics and Performance of Ugandan State Agencies
Full text linkThe aim of this study is to determine the mediating effect of strategy implementation of the relationship between TMT characteristics and performance of Ugandan state agencies. The study was anchored on the upper echelons’ theory and dynamic capabilities theory. The study adopted a descriptive cross-sectional research design. The target population of the study was the 201 state agencies in Uganda. The study adopted at least three members of the TMT depending on the number of TMT members of the 160 selected state agencies in Uganda to gather the required information. Primary data was gathered using a structured questionnaire that was administered online. Inferential statistics employed regression analysis to test the hypothesis and draw conclusions. Haye’s (2022) PROCESS 4 (model 4) was utilised to test the hypothesis of this study. Furthermore, strategy implementation partially mediates the relationship between TMT characteristics and performance (Indirect effect of strategy implementation, b=.385, p<0.05 and the direct effect, b = .267, p<0.05). From the findings of this study, the research concludes that that strategy implementation has a significant partial mediating effect on the relationship between TMT characteristics and the performance of Ugandan state agencies. In addition, the results imply that the specific mechanism by which the connection between TMT characteristics and the performance of Ugandan state agencies occurs is direct, strategy implementation contributes a part to the relationship. This study recommends that individuals that make the TMT should have significant expert capabilities that give relevance while formulating and executing strategies. The study also recommends that strategy implementation should have a framework that is not affected by politics and corruption. This study also recommends that state agencies in Uganda need to create a prize and acknowledgement framework for TMTs and personnel who succeed in strategy implementation so they can be persuaded. This is on the grounds that it is through strategy implementation that the state agencies in Uganda can follow through on their directives and further improve service delivery. Rewards give a chance to the TMTs and staff to contend among themselves and this would bring quality, efficiency, proficiency and adequacy in delivering services
In Search of the Holy Grail, Living in Neverland: An Autoethnographic Perspective of the Social Consequences of Imagination and Story of the Gifted Human
No full textThis investigation addresses five constituents—calling, social consequences, imagination, story, and the experience of being gifted. It is grounded in the fundamental human inquiry of identity and purpose and contains both personal and universal answers. Primarily, the author sought to answer one question: How did imagination and story reveal and develop my personal narrative? This led her to Hillman’s (1997) contention that our true biography—the destiny written into our metaphoric acorn—has been stolen. Three questions arose from the primary question used to organize the literature review: (a) How has the use of this knowledge affected my understanding of the evolution of the human story? (b) What evidence is there to identify when our species developed imagination? and (c) Why is imagination undervalued? There were four sub-questions answered through the personal data: (a) How is a quest or calling revealed? (b) Why is the phenomenon of Neverland essential to human well-being? (c) How did social forces impede the expression of imagination and the process of the original human story? and (d) What does it mean to be gifted? The method chosen for this work was autoethnography, which, according to Bochner and Ellis (2016), exists in a space between many apparent polarities including facts and meanings,objectivity and subjectivity, and art and science in what Reed-Danahay (1997) explained was how we come to know, name, and interpret personal and cultural experiences. The author was the only participant in this study; however, the meaning emerging from the inquiry could be relevant for many. The rationale and significance of this study was based on the assumption that the quality of human lives often suffers when people remain disconnected from experiencing their authentic self. The key finding was that through claiming the state of Neverland, as represented by the Peter Pan story, the author was able to connect with who she is and why she is here. This research allowed the author to reclaim her calling, imagination, and story, and acknowledge her giftedness. The ultimate call is for a new paradigm that welcomes and supports the unfolding human destiny
NATURE OF FRAUD AND ITS EFFECTS IN THE MEDICAL INSURANCE SECTOR IN KENYA
Full text linkABSTRACT Insurance fraud is a major challenge facing the insurance industry both in thedeveloping and developed world. This vice has no doubt existed wherever insurance policies areunderwritten and takes different forms depending on the economic time and coverages available.However, the validity of this claim has hardly been established empirically in Kenya. It is importantthat the insurance players in Kenya understand the nature and effects of insurance fraud and alsocome up with strategies to counter the same. The study objective was to investigate the nature offraud and its effects in the medical insurance sector in Kenya and also establish possible solutionsin countering the vice. The study adopted a descriptive research design where each of the twentyeight registered medical insurance providers and twenty Insurance companies underwritingmedical insurance in Kenya formed the sample frame of forty eight firms. A questionnaire was themain research instrument. The study findings revealed that majority of the firms sampled hadexperienced different levels of fraud in the recent past with the fraud form ranging from overstatedmedical bills, concealment of medical history of the patient, fraudulent identity / impersonation,document theft fraud as well as perpetration of the insurance premium fraud. The extent of fraudwas found to depend on the existence and extent of automation that the firms had adopted with highfraud levels being associated with low IT Usage and/or automation. The effects of fraud include:increase in the cost of medical insurance and tarnishing the image of the insurance industry.Solutions suggested in manageing the level of fraud include: subjecting medical bills to extensiveaudit to determine their validity as well as high levels of automation of the processes, making itmandatory for clients to produce their smart-cards in any medical facility before receiving services,and maintaining a database of all insured within the organizations’ network. Other strategiesinclude restriction of unauthorized employees in accessing client information, educating the staff touphold ethical practices and offering a better remuneration and friendlier work environment. Thisstudy contributes to a partial understanding of the reasons for medical covers being expensive andthe negative image of the insurance industry
Contextualizing narrative theory: reading the politics of formal innovation in contemporary women's fiction
Full text linkTo ignore the strategies and structures through which stories are told, this thesis contends, is to neglect a vital dimension of their politics. Narratology provides productive analytical tools to illuminate the complex and varied mechanics of narrative form, yet it also bears the traces of its structuralist origins. Its value is therefore contingent upon its continuing reformulation as an expansive, pluralist and contextualized critical discipline. Participating in this expansion, this
thesis evidences the pertinence and vitality of some narratological models and the limitations of others. It opens up alternative critical possibilities by drawing upon insights within contemporary critical theory, from poststructuralist philosophy to transcultural feminism to
sociolinguistics. Above all, my interventions proceed from close readings of innovative fiction by women writers hitherto all but unrepresented in, and therefore potentially subversive of, existing models: Nicole Brossard, Daphne Marlatt, Hiromi Goto, Ali Smith, Jackie Kay, Erna Brodber, Dionne Brand, Aritha van Herk.
The first chapter formulates an in-between critical space where feminist and postmodernist theories of narrative intersect. It re-examines metafiction through the lens of auto(bio)graphical practice and feminist poststructuralist theories of self, and introduces the notions of folds and
echoes to describe specific structural innovations. Chapter Two examines unconventional uses of second-person address and reconsiders existing narratological approaches in their light, focusing on the `push and pull of narrative' that the `you' form enacts. Chapter Three addresses the insufficient attention paid to multiply narrated novels, theorizing them as `narrative communities' and introducing terms to describe different internal relations between narrators, relations that can often be read as determinedly 'democratic'. The final chapter contests the
hegemony of temporal models of narrativity by formulating a 'spatial poetics' that accounts both for how spatial structures can be agents of narrative change and for the complexity of textual constructions of space, which frequently exceed static definitions of 'setting'.
Running throughout is a reconception of narrative as located not with the figure of the narrator, but in relations of intersubjectivity. The narratological criticism formulated here works towards a situated ethics of reading responsive to the politics of writing: it is engaged, relational, and ever in process
Engendering global democracy
No full textThe inadequacies of hegemonic liberal democratic ideas and institutions have been exposed by feminist theorists focusing on the marginalisation of women and by global theorists examining the impact of globalisation. These theorists have developed two distinct sets of reconstructive strategies that, until very recently, have remained in ignorance of each other. Further, both feminist and global democratic schemes have been dogged by problems in terms of their theorisation of power, politics, agency and change. Recent feminist arguments about citizenship and governance go some way to bringing together concerns about gender inequality and globalisation, but they remain centred on states and the states-system as vehicles for democratic representation and participation. This article argues that a more radical reconstructive strategy can be derived from debates about the democratisation of feminism itself. Drawing on the responses of black and third world feminists to racism in the white-dominated feminist movement, and examining their influence on efforts to organise transnationally, the article points to innovative ways of thinking about power, politics, agency and change. Together these amount to a democratic framework which has applicability beyond feminist organising and which confronts the marginalisations of both gender and globalisation
Análisis económico del sector papero en Colombia y su relación con el paro de papicultores (2013-2023)
No full textEl presente trabajo analiza el sector papero colombiano durante el período 2013–2023, enfocándose en la relación entre las fallas del mercado y los paros de papicultores. A través de la construcción de un modelo econométrico log-lineal, se estudian las variables económicas que determinan la oferta del cultivo de papa: área sembrada, consumo aparente, precios al productor, costos de producción, exportaciones e importaciones.
Los resultados muestran una tendencia decreciente en el área sembrada, un aumento sostenido en los costos de producción, un débil crecimiento de la demanda interna y una penetración creciente de las importaciones de papa procesada. Estos factores estructurales limitan la rentabilidad y competitividad del productor nacional.
Se concluye que los paros de papicultores no son eventos aislados, sino respuestas estructurales ante un entorno económico adverso. En ausencia de políticas públicas efectivas que corrijan las fallas del mercado y fortalezcan la producción nacional, la crisis del sector papero podría agravarse en los próximos años.This study analyzes the Colombian potato sector during the 2013–2023 period, focusing on the relationship between market failures and the potato growers’ strikes. Through the construction of a log-linear econometric model, the main eco-nomic variables determining the supply of potato crops are examined: cultivated area, apparent consumption, producer prices, production costs, exports, and imports.
The results show a decreasing trend in the cultivated area, a sustained increase in production costs, a weak growth in domestic demand, and a
rising penetration of imported processed potatoes. These structural factors limit the profitability and competitiveness of local producers.
The study concludes that the potato growers’ strikes are not isolated events, but structural responses to an adverse economic environment. In the absence of effective public policies to correct market failures and strengthen domestic production, the crisis in the potato sector could worsen in the coming years.PregradoEconomistaObjetivos ..... 3
Objetivo General ..... 3
Objetivos Específicos ..... 4
Planteamiento del Problema ..... 4
Pregunta de Investigación ..... 5
Marco Teórico ..... 5
Marco Conceptual ..... 7
Fallas del Mercado y la Intervención del Estado ..... 7
Cambio Climático y Producción Agrícola ..... 8
Comercio Internacional y Competitividad ..... 8
Estructura de Mercado y Poder de Negociación ..... 9
Innovación Tecnológica en el Sector Agropecuario ..... 9
Metodología ..... 9
Análisis y Resultados del Modelo Log - Lineal ..... 10
Construcción del Modelo Econométrico ..... 10
DATOS DE LA PRODUCCIÓN Y LAS VARIABLES EXPLICATIVAS 2013 – 2023 ..... 15
ESTADÍSTICAS DESCRIPTIVAS ..... 16
Media (Mean) y Mediana (Median) ..... 16
Máximo y Mínimo ..... 17
Estimación del Modelo Log-Lineal mediante Mínimos Cuadrados Ordinarios ..... 18
Análisis de Resultados del Modelo ..... 18
Interpretación de los niveles de significancia en el modelo econométrico ..... 19
Correlación ..... 20
Relación funcional entre producción de papa y las demás variables: ..... 20
Análisis de Multicolinealidad entre las Variables Explicativas ..... 24
Evaluación de multicolinealidad mediante regresiones auxiliares (Regla de Klein) ..... 25
Variables independientes con mayor contribución explicativa al modelo ..... 32
Proyección del Comportamiento de las Variables sin Políticas de Incentivo ..... 37
Proyección de la Producción de Papa y Variables Asociadas en Colombia (2024–2028) ..... 40
Comparación entre Producción Observada y Pronóstico de Papa en Colombia ..... 41
Grado de Ajuste ..... 42
Posibles Causas y Soluciones Planteadas al Paro de Papicultores en Colombia a través de Evidencia Económica ..... 47
Conclusiones .....5
Low Variation in the Polymorphic Clock Gene Poly-Q Region Despite Population Genetic Structure across Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica) Populations
Full text linkPubMed ID: 22216124This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited
