Date of Conferral

2018

Degree

Doctor of Business Administration (D.B.A.)

School

Business Administration

Advisor

Ron Black

Abstract

Crop insurance is an essential risk management tool for America's agricultural producers because a single crop failure or disastrous year can eliminate the results of multiple years of profitability. Crop insurance is designed to provide financial protection to farmers; however, insurance managers who lack managerial underwriting strategies disrupt companies to the point of financial distress. Self-insurance and self-protection theory were the conceptual frameworks for this single-case study to explore successful strategies that insurance managers used to mitigate net underwriting losses. Four insurance and senior strategic managers from an insurance company in the midwestern United States were recruited through a purposeful sampling method to participate in semistructured interviews. Data gathered from these interviews and from the company's website and its public financial reports were analyzed through a reflective interpretation process, which was guided by the Van Kaam method. Five themes that emerged from this study, including disruptive technology, traditional underwriter vs. integrated profit-and-loss expert, streamlined applications by in-house technology or strategic alliances, opportunity assessment, and underwriting discipline. By implementing executive support for strategies to mitigate net underwriting losses, managers of crop insurance companies can overcome the challenges of net underwriting losses. The findings from this study may promote positive social change by lowering insurance premiums to the farm community and enabling managers to reduce risk to companies and farmers by distributing financial risk across a pool of participants thus enriching the stakeholders' investments.

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