Perceptions of digital business within the Finnish pension insurance sector

Digital business has revolutionized the ways of conducting business in the 21st century. Novel digital technologies and applications based mostly on the Internet can improve the cost-efficiency of companies, increase their revenues through new digital channels, and enable new kinds of business models. Digitalization has the potential to provide substantial benefits also for the Finnish pension insurance sector that may face challenges in the future due to weaknesses of the current pension system and possible legal amendments. This thesis investigates the Finnish pension insurance sector's perceptions of digitalization through eleven digital business enablers that were recognized to be the most important for the industry at present. A literature review is provided to define digital business and discuss its relation with terms such as electronic business and electronic commerce. In addition, the recognized digital business enablers are introduced and their applications in financial services industries are discussed, if identified from the literature. A matrix-form research framework was formed based on the reviewed literature for the empirical research. Data for the research was collected through semi-structured interviews and a quantitative web questionnaire from three Finnish pension insurance companies. Data was analyzed using principal component analysis and constructing biplots based on the results. Two significant dimensions were recognized in the perceptions of digital business enablers within the pension insurance industry: the intensity of the external pressure to adopt the enabler and the volume of resource need to adopt the enabler. Based on the results, the most business-critical digital business enablers for the Finnish pension insurance industry are currently business process automation, online services, and big data. Especially implementing big data may pose challenges for companies, due to lack of initiatives under way and the anticipated scarcity of skilled workers in the future