外文题目： A Customer View on the Most Preferred Alliance Structure between Banks and Insurance Structure 出 处： Zeitschrift fr Betriebswirtschaft 作 者：Pekka Korhonen, Lasse Koskinen and Raimo Voutilainen 原 文：OverviewIn this paper, we have studied alternative alliance structures between banks and insurance companies from the point of view of Finnish customer representatives. Seven criteria were introduced for the evaluation of six alternative structure models for such alliances. The evaluation was carried out by an expert panel consisting of customer representatives. As a supporting tool, we used the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP).The alliance models based on plain cross-selling agreements were considered most preferred.We also studied how familiar the customer representatives were with the alliance problem from the point of view of the bank and insurance executives and that of the supervisory authorities. We observed that the customer representatives did not recognize the problem as well from the point of view of the supervisors as that of the executives. In addition,it was interesting to note that the customer representatives did not consider a risk aspect in the control by ownership alternatives as critical as the executives.Comparing the results in this study to our previous studies, we may conclude that the best compromise model from all three points of view could be the financial conglomerate on the condition that certain supervisory and customer criteria are satisfied to a sufficient degree.A. IntroductionAlliance formation in the financial industry has been a growing trend during the last decade.Insurers in an alliance between banks and insurance companies are most often life insurance companies, but also non-life companies can be found. Financial alliances often include units like mutual fund managing companies, asset management companies, securities brokerages and corporate finance companies. In most European countries, banks are allowed to be “universal”. It is customary that they include the above mentioned functions. The same holds more and more often for insurance companies as well (see, eg. Skipper 2000).Thats why the various types of alliances on the retail market between banks and insurance companies are of special interest.In our previous papers (Voutilainen 2005, Korhonen and Voutilainen 2005 and Korhonen, Koskinen, and Voutilainen 2005), we have studied alliance structure alternatives from different perspectives. In Voutilainen 2005, we introduced six different alliance structure alternatives and nine criteria relevant for evaluating those alternatives from the perspective of the executives of the banks and insurance companies. The alternatives and the criteria were introduced together with bank and insurance experts. Each expert was interviewed individually. The experts were representatives of the top management of Finnish banks and insurance companies.In the second paper (Korhonen and Voutilainen 2005), the same group of experts were used as a panel to find the most preferred model for a financial alliance. As a decision support system we used the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) developed by Saaty 1980.The problem was a typical AHP-problem: few alternatives and few qualitative criteria.The use of the AHP focused the discussions on the relevant aspects of the choice problem.The final solution was found in two meetings. The second meeting was the initiative of the panel. The panel felt that the problem required more considerations. The panel preferred the Control by ownership models. On the other hand, a risk-averse manager might also prefer looser alliance alternatives.In the third paper (Korhonen et al. 2005), our aim was to find the best financial alliance compromise structure between the executives of the banks and insurance companies and the bank and insurance supervisory authorities in Finland.1 First, we searched for the best alliance structure from the point of view of supervisory authorities. Together with leaders and experts of the supervisory authorities, we introduced eight criteria for the evaluation of the previously defined six alternative alliance structures. The evaluation was carried out by an expert panel consisting of the representatives of the supervisory authorities.The alliance alternatives based on plain cross-selling agreements received the highest ranks in the evaluation of supervisory authorities. Under certain conditions, the financial conglomerate might be an acceptable compromise alternative for the supervisory authorities as well.In this paper, we have approached our problem from the point of view of customers.The importance of this perspective has been emphazised by e.g. Belth 2000. Customer perspective to mergers is taken in Bank Marketing International 2004. We did not take a sample fr