Résumé
Since the 1980s, a growing number of studies have questioned innovation in services. However, apart from recent productions dedicated to InsurTech, insurance, as a service, has raised a more limited interest. The complexity of insurance services and organizations partly justifies this situation. This thesis aims at contributing to the understanding of innovation in services through a sectoral approach. We question a distribution model that embodies the organizational complexity and the different levels of insurance interaction: the general agent. In a constructivist approach, our case study is based on participant observation and action research. Our results highlight several specificities of insurance services. We demonstrate the existence of specific issues (regulation, adaptation, operational requirements) and dynamics (coopetition, centralization of decisions). Our results underline the preponderance of process innovations that improve risk management, operational efficiency and customer relations. Thus, we formalize a typology of innovation in insurance. If our results highlight the coopetitive nature of the relationship between insurer and general agent, we also identify the existence of optimization levers. Finally, enhancing the social nature of the insurance service, we show how process innovation can generate social innovation. In particular, we suggest an analysis grid able in which business issues can be linked to social and territorial issues. The original approach of this thesis contributes to a better sectoral understanding of innovation in services. It also underlines the proximity between service innovation and social innovation.
Source: http://www.theses.fr/2021PA131006
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