Asset portfolio decision making process of Nigerian insurance companies
[Thesis]
Akinwale, Samson Olusegun.
Manchester Metropolitan University
2006
Ph.D.
Manchester Metropolitan University
2006
Asset configuration of Insurance Companies is crucial to their efficient management since thediversification it implies is vital for the dispersion and atomisation of risks underwritten.Asset portfolio decisions are important to Insurance Companies because they conciliate between rarelyconverging and often conflicting goals, security, liquidity and profitability.This study examines asset portfolio decision making process of Insurance Companies in Nigeria. Thecurrent study, aims to identify and develop integrated investment decision concepts guiding andinfluencing the asset portfolio decision process.Prior literature on asset portfolio decision making in Nigeria is sparse and focussed principally onclassical models of decision making with inadequate metrics for quantifying risks, questionable andimpracticable methods and data. The main problem of the portfolio theory, ex-pected utility and mostmodem theories of risks is that they regard risks in terms of standard deviations, variances, decisionweights and co variances whereas risks can be defined in many ways and terms in different situationsThey fail to account for many facets of decision making by reflecting on rational and normative modelsthat treat investment decision making as highly structured and formalised. By contrast, decision makingand risk assessment are multi criteria processes that cannot be defined by rigid quantitative models thushighlighting the necessity to consider decision making by decision makers in their natural settings(social contexts, political and environment) in the case of this thesis, an Insurance Company.Decision theory literature together with asset portfolio decisions literature are reviewed and consideredwithin the contexts of the unit of analysis.Utilising the qualitative paradigm, the research made use of exrploratory case study of a singleorganisation through the application of modified grounded theory methodology to develop six broadcases of investment decision concepts. The emergent concepts were critique against extant literaturethereby highlighting their similarities and differences.The thesis introduces new perspectives of decision making by the introduction of the investment decisionconcepts influencing asset portfolio decisions of Insurance Companies. Thus, the research specificallycontributes to three areas of research. The first area centred on asset portfolio management six decisionconcepts (Consistency of Return, Security, Legal and Regulatory Control, Competency of Management.Association &Relationships and Stable Environment). The second area is the methodological approachby situating naturalistic decision making within the insurance sector and the modified grounded theoryemployed enhances conventional qualitative research within the financial sector of the Nigerianeconomy.The third key area addresses the significance of social relationship, association and specificenvironmental issues influencing asset portfolio decision of Nigerian Insurance Companies.