Social Responsibility of Insurance Companies
Abstract
In our changing, globalizing world, local action is increasingly becoming a reality for economic actors to take responsibility for their environment and society. It is becoming increasingly important how individuals perceive the role of the company in its value process. Our research investigated how widespread the CSR in a segment of market participants, insurance companies.
Hypotheses: H1: Only major insurance companies perform CSR activities. H2: The form of CSR activity does not differ significantly between them. H3: Support is the biggest investment between CSR programs. H4: They spend less than 5% of annual operating results on CSR activities
Methodology: Secondary research from CSR reports on insurance companies’ websites. We are focusing on the role of the 5 largest among them. Primary quantitative research in a survey of a self-contained electronic questionnaire sent to 13 insurers who perform CSR activities according to their website.
Results: We are pleased to see that CSR is gaining ground in the insurance market as a result of companies and the banking sector. Smaller insurance companies mainly use grants and donations, while the larger ones carry out CSR actions with a wider range of actions. CSR activities of large insurance companies do not differ significantly: they are built on support, volunteering for employees and the environment. It is important to emphasize that in the field of education, people are trying to sensitize the population and especially young people in terms of health care, accident and injury prevention, as well as security and insurance as financial services. A common feature of sport is the prominent appearance of sports, but many insurance companies sponsor nationally-recognized sports clubs or Hungarian national teams, which does not necessarily imply real social responsibility, but rather an advertising space for the insurance institution. According to the questionnaire survey, insurance companies spend less than 5% of the annual profit on CSR activity.
