Reputation Outcomes in Financial Services: The Case of Insurance Companies

The paper aims to investigate the role of reputation in the insurance industry. It is important to test the direct and indirect outcomes of reputation in insurance companies. Direct consequences of reputation include perceived value, satisfaction, trust, and commitment, while the indirect outcomes are loyalty and word-of-mouth (WOM). For this purpose, a theoretical model was proposed and tested using structural equation modelling (SEM). A questionnaire survey was developed to examine the relationships between reputation, perceived value, satisfaction, trust, commitment, loyalty, and word-of-mouth. For this study, 744 valid questionnaires were collected from a sample of Portuguese car insurance policyholders. The results revealed that reputation directly influences perceived value, satisfaction, trust, and commitment and indirectly affects loyalty via these variables. Additionally, reputation indirectly influences WOM through perceived value, satisfaction, and commitment. Finally, loyalty has an impact on WOM. This research emphasises the crucial role of reputation in insurance companies and fills a gap in understanding the outcomes of reputation in insurance services.