Firm Survival: An Empirical Study Concerning Insurance Agencies

This paper analyzes the relevance of firm size, region, sales network, organizational structure, and auditing on the survival likelihood of a specific firm typology, the insurance agency. By applying a configurational comparative method, namely fuzzy-set qualitative analysis (fsQCA), to a unique dataset of 52 insurance agents, representing 52 active Italian insurance agencies, this study demonstrates that, when combined with other variables, organizational structure provides sufficient conditions for insurance agency survival. The different relevance of some specific management areas according to the insurance agency location is highlighted.