Analyzing value propositions of property and casualty insurance companies in the business-to-business market

The goal of this research is to assess what future value proposition might be used by Dutch property-and-casualty (P&C) insurance companies to distinct their offering from competitors’ and win the market for business-to-business (B2B) clients. The value discipline typology of Treacy and Wiersema (1997) is used to describe value propositions as a combination of three kinds of customer value. Inspired by the work of Micheels and Gow (2009), a value discipline scale is created to measure which combination of customer values P&C-insurers intend to deliver, and which combination of customer values is perceived and needed by clients. A preliminary content analysis is conducted to provide more insight into the value propositions as communicated by P&C-insurers. Potential gaps are analyzed between value propositions from these four perspectives (i.e. the intention and communication of P&C-insurers, and the perception and needs of B2B-clients). The quantitative results of a survey among P&C-insurers and B2B-clients (plus the consequent gap analysis) are complemented with qualitative interviews for the purpose of explanation and illustration (Bryman, 2006). By identifying and analyzing potential gaps, we hope to provide P&C-insurers with future directions on how they can deliver a more distinctive value proposition towards B2B-clients.