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AD ALTA

JOURNAL OF INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH

To evaluate the hypotheses H1–H5, the correlation analysis and
multiple linear regression are employed by applying the ENTER
method. Coefficients of determination for the regression model
have been calculated, which have revealed the consistency of a
model with the data. Moreover, estimates of model parameters
have been calculated to show the impact of independent
regression variables on dependent variables. For each estimate of
the parameter, referring to Fisher’s test with the critical region
on the right, its statistical significance has been assessed. To
assess the statistical significance, a significance level of 0.05 has
been chosen. The estimate of model parameter has been assumed
to be statistically significant if p<0.05. Otherwise, the estimate
of a parameter does not help to explain the dependent variable
and is not statistically significant. In the course of regression
analysis, regression equations that relate dependent variables
(AS, CO, AL, SE, and EI) with independent variables (AII,
ANC, and APC) are obtained.

5 Data Analysis and Discussion

65.4 percent of respondents were women and 34.6 percent were
men. Such gender-distribution is partly due to a bigger number
of women working in the sphere of life insurance intermediation.
When evaluating other socio-demographic characteristics of
respondents, it should be mentioned that the majority of
respondents selling life insurance services have higher university
education (69 percent). A relatively small proportion of
respondents have indicated to have advanced vocational
education and training and higher college education – 12.7
percent and 11.7 percent, respectively. Only 4 percent of
respondents have secondary education and 2 percent of
respondents have indicated “another option” (incomplete higher,
special secondary, and vocational education).

In order to assess the employment dynamics of intermediaries
and the importance of the function of life insurance
intermediation, respondents have been asked to indicate what
position in their working activities is occupied by selling life
insurance services – is it main job or additional, as well as
whether intermediary is engaged in other work activities, despite
the fact that the analysed sphere is their main activity. On the
basis of the collected data, it can be assumed that the market of
life insurance services is dominated by the trend that
intermediaries are engaged in more activities than only providing
life insurance services. Although slightly more than half of
respondents (55.30 percent) have indicated that intermediation in
life insurance business is their main job, almost a third, i. e.,
25.30 percent of respondents besides intermediation are also
engaged in other work activities; 19.40 percent have indicated
that intermediation in the sphere of life insurance is only an
additional job.

The majority of respondents have much experience in the field
of insurance intermediation. Intermediaries with 7 to 9 years of
experience in life insurance business have accounted for 26.7
percent, 4 to 6 years – for 23.7 percent, and more than 10 years –
for 11 percent. However, one third of respondents of the survey
have relatively little experience of 1 to 3 years. There were 29
percent of such life insurance intermediaries. The least
experience in intermediation, i. e. up to one year, has been
indicated by 9.7 percent of respondents.

Based on the descriptive statistics of the variables, the mean
values of measures have been determined, the characteristics of
location and dispersion of measures have been evaluated, as well
as the maximum and minimum values (Table 2). Part of the
respondents did not provide all the answers, therefore further
data analysis includes only data lines with full data.

Table 2. Descriptive statistics of measures

lis

-e

ica

Total

289

294

286

293

287

Did not respond

The mean

2,39

2,15

2,20

2,13

2,12

Median

2,13

2,00

1,73

1,67

1,80

Standard
deviation

1,07

0,84

1,09

1,05

1,00

Minimum value

Maximum value

Since the most expressed behavioural feature (the answer – very
often, totally agree) has been evaluated on a scale of 1, and the
least expressed features (very rarely, totally disagree) – on a
scale of 5, the obtained results have revealed that, on average,
the most common behaviour is emotional intelligence as it has
the mean of 2.12 points while the rarest is adaptive selling (2.39
points). Moreover, in the course of the research, the medians of
scales have been calculated; they are appropriate because this
statics helps to determine the mean value of the attribute without
including exclusions (the median indicates the mean value of the
ranked scale). The results have showed that the results of the
median are somewhat different from the results of the mean,
with the lowest score of 1.67 points in self-efficacy and the
highest score in adaptive selling (2.13 points). The evaluation of
data dispersion has showed that the highest standard deviation
was recorded in the measure of active listening (1.09 points) and
the lowest in the measure of customer orientation (0.84 points).
This shows that the greatest inconsistency of opinions has been
observed in evaluating the measure of active listening, and the
most consistent respondents’ opinion was in evaluating customer
orientation.

In order to assess the reliability of the research instrument, the
values of Cronbach’s alpha statistics have been calculated. They
show the internal consistency of each construct (scale) with the
data. Based on the obtained results, it is evident that Cronbach’s
alpha values in all scales are greater than 0.7. The lowest
Cronbach’s alpha value is observed in the scale of “Customer
orientation” (0.822), and the most consistent with the data is the
scale of the variable of “Active listening” (0.964) (see Table 3).

Table 3. The Cronbach’s alpha results of the internal consistency
of scales

Scale

Cronbach’s
alpha value

Number of
statements
in
questions

Adaptive selling (AS)

0,950

Customer orientation (CO)

0,822

Active listening (AL)

0,964

Self-efficacy (SE)

0,960

Emotional intelligence (EI)

0,953

Based on the results of consistency of scales, it can be stated that
all scales are well consistent with the data and therefore they are
suitable to be used in the research to accomplish correlation and
regression analyses.

In the course of the research, correlation and regression analyses
have been performed. They have helped to test the hypotheses
raised in the theoretical part. The evaluation of the hypotheses
H1–H5 has aimed at determining whether work methods of
adaptive selling, customer orientation, active listening used by
life insurance intermediaries, as well as high level of their self-
efficacy and emotional intelligence are directly related to their
sales performance, which in this study is defined by the average
number of life insurance contracts per month, the average

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