Developing an instrument to measure the strategically innovative environment of life insurance organisations in Southern Africa

Abstract

This thesis reports on an exploratory study to see to what extent an instrument could be developed to measure the strategically innovative environment of life assurance organisations in Southern Africa. This instrument was applied to a number of life assurance organisations in Southern Africa and the results plotted on a four quadrant matrix, developed for this study, to illustrate to what extent certain variables could contribute in establishing a strategically innovative environment. The main contribution of this study is to explain the interaction between the knowledge economy, intellectual capital, the corporate curriculum, learning theory and strategic innovation. This study argues that the interaction between these components is key in developing human capital which in turn is an important component of strategic innovation. Furthermore, the instrument developed for this study can be used to evaluate other organisations, thus ultimately assisting them in becoming strategically innovative as well. It was found that life assurance organisations in Southern Africa could be regarded as moderately strategically innovative. The degree of strategic innovation varies according to the presence and integration of certain variables set out for the organisation.