Understanding satisfaction in information security management: An integrated study of corporate practices and demographic factors in China's insurance sector

Customer satisfaction with personal information security management directly measures the effectiveness of insurance companies in ensuring customer confidentiality. However, previous studies focused either on the level of awareness among customers or the corporate measures taken whereas this study integrates both dimensions for a holistic analysis. This paper examines how demographic factors, corporate practices, and satisfaction interlink to determine which factors have the most influence on customers’ level of satisfaction regarding managing information security within the insurance sector. This research had a quantitative research design aiming to assess the customers’ satisfaction with the personal information security practices of China's insurance sector. There were 77 participants, of which 61 were taken from 13 insurance companies, and they held two policies each, amounting to 138 insurance policies in total. Purposive sampling was adopted in order to ensure that a good range of demographics is covered. Structured questionnaires were used to collect data in April 2024, with tech-friendly participants reached via social media and elderly participants interviewed by phone. The results show that the effect of insurance type on satisfaction is not significant when stratified by educational degree. However, age and insurance type have a significant joint effect on satisfaction. Furthermore, satisfaction depends on insurance pricing and channels of potential information leakage. Regression analysis reveals that monetary capital, claims reserves, and highly educated personnel are significant corporate factors that affect satisfaction. This research introduces a novel perspective by integrating the dimensions of customer satisfaction and information security management comprehensively. The paper proposes new insight into potential risks concerning leakage across various channels of information, which is related to how this affects customer trust.