Abstract
M.Comm. (Business Management)
Over the past ten years the insurance industry has been subject to extreme losses due to dual exposure in both underwriting and investments. Financial survival was the number one priority for many insurance firms in the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attack in America in 2001, the natural catastrophe losses across the USA, and most recently the global financial crisis. Multinational European and North American insurance firms have been forced to focus on core business activities, and this has necessitated improvement of holistic risk and capital management of global and regional operations. Against this evolving microeconomic and managerial backdrop, multinational insurance firms withdrew from the South African insurance market in an attempt to improve financial performance by recapitalising funds to their core operations in Europe and America, and to mitigate their international risk exposure in developing countries.
This study explores the phenomenon of how an entrepreneurial entity experienced opportunity realisation within the South African insurance industry when multinational insurance firms withdrew from the South African market. This research employed qualitative case study methodology to illustrate the phenomenon under investigation. Participants of this study included a purposefully selected group consisting of 12 candidates who have been directly involved in the opportunity realisation of the entrepreneurial entity. Grounded Theory analysis allowed for insightful descriptions of opportunity realisation within the South African insurance industry.
The empirical evidence suggest opportunity realisation to be impacted by five dominant forces, namely, the South African insurance market, an entrepreneurial entity, opportunity identification, strategic development, and organisational design. Collectively, these five forces constitute the Inductive Opportunity Realisation (IOR) theory.
This study focuses on entrepreneurial behaviour to realise opportunities within the South African insurance industry. The IOR theory also highlights the important role of constructive and deconstructive entrepreneurial behaviour in realising opportunities.