Examining the vitality of insurance agencies in the context oforganizational ecology theory: The example of the East Marmara Region

In this study, the vitality of insurance agencies in the insurance sector is examined within the scope of Organizational Ecology Theory (OET), which researches and analyzes the establishment and closing rates of organizations. The definition of insurance agents as a "population" and the "factors affecting the vitality" of the new, adolescent and mature periods of the agents were investigated within the scope of demographic processes. As it is known, OET seeks an answer to the question of "how do organizations react when small and large-scale changes occur in their environment". Acting with the selection approach, this theory argues that while existing organizations adapt to small-scale changes in such cases, most of the organizations will be closed in large-scale changes and organizations with features compatible with new environmental conditions will be established instead. In this context, in this study, first of all, the OET in general organization and organizational theory was discussed, then the insurance practices in Turkey were tried to be explained with the basic information about insurance. In the research, it is aimed to understand the vitality factors that may affect the life of insurance agents and affect their establishment and closure within the framework of OET. In the research, a Multiple Case Study covering 40 insurance agencies selected with the intentional and purposeful sampling method among 680 insurance agencies in the Eastern Marmara Region of Turkey was conducted and the data were evaluated with the MAXQDA 2020 Qualitative Data Analysis Program with thematic analysis method, and the results were concluded with the help of prominent codes and themes tried to be reached. According to the results of the research, the survival of the agents in the population depends on their ability to cope with the problems they encounter at each life stage, on the other hand, they have the ability to respond quickly and effectively to environmental changes, they are sensitive to technology and digital transformation, and they comply with legal regulations and sanctions, It has been determined that taking care of the agency-company relations and having a reputation provide important benefits for their survival, and those who do not have these characteristics have to end their lives. However, beyond the above, it has been determined that the most important factor determining the life of an insurance agency is the level of agency-company relations. Because, if the insurance company wishes, it can support its agent and provide him with all kinds of opportunities and ensure his survival. It has been concluded that if he wishes, he can eliminate the agency by selling policies through other distribution channels. In the conclusion part of the study, in the context of the data obtained from the research, various suggestions are given to the public, legal regulatory and supervisory institutions, insurance companies operating in the sector, insurance agencies operating in the sector and researchers who will work on this subject in the future. According to the results of the research, it was understood that the OET assumptions can also be used to define the insurance agency population, and it was determined that the data obtained were largely similar to the claims in the literature. As can be seen in the study, it has been determined that agents can continue their lives by adapting to small-grained changes, but as the theory indicates, when there are large-grained changes, agents cannot cope with them sufficiently and may have to terminate their life. This study is important in terms of being one of the first studies in the literature on obtaining results with the help of thematic analysis by examining the factors that may affect the vitality of insurance agencies within the scope of OET. Keywords: Organization, Organization Theory, Organizational Ecology, Insurance, Insurance Agencies, Thematic Analysis