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Article

Sustainability Management through Corporate Social Responsibility Activities in the Life Insurance Industry: Lessons from the Success Story of Kyobo Life Insurance in Korea †

by
Young Back Ahn
and
Hyun Chae Park
*
College of Business Administration, Chonnam National University, Gwangju 61186, Republic of Korea
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
†
Based on What Was Presented during the Spring 2023 Conference of the Korean Academy of Organization and Management, the Manuscript is Revised and Supplemented.
Sustainability 2023, 15(15), 11632; https://doi.org/10.3390/su151511632
Submission received: 24 June 2023 / Revised: 18 July 2023 / Accepted: 20 July 2023 / Published: 27 July 2023
(This article belongs to the Section Economic and Business Aspects of Sustainability)
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Abstract

:
The current reality is that Korean insurance companies primarily focus on simplistic social contribution activities, such as making donations, rather than attaining sustainable management practices. So based on the case study methodology, this study examines the CSR activities of Kyobo Life Insurance for sustainable management and investigates how corporate values are aligned with the nature of the industry. The research analyzes Kyobo Life Insurance’s CSR initiatives across three dimensions: environmental, social, and economic, with a focus on sustainable management. The analysis identifies three distinct CSR characteristics of Kyobo Life Insurance. Firstly, the company demonstrates more active engagement in social initiatives compared to the environmental and economic aspects. Secondly, while prioritizing sustainable management through collaborative efforts with major stakeholders, the company exhibits a relatively greater emphasis on CSR activities targeting internal stakeholders. Lastly, since 2011, the company has been an industry leader in annually publishing sustainable management reports, showcasing its commitment to stakeholder communication and co-prosperity. The study suggests that life insurance companies should enhance their CSR activities to ensure greater sustainability and effectiveness while also providing guidance for companies to adapt to evolving industrial landscapes.

1. Introduction

With the advancements in corporate management and industrial structural development, there is an increased emphasis on corporate ethics and social responsibility, and the ethical responsibility and standards that society demands from companies are increasing day by day [1,2,3,4]. The modern definition of the concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR) is based on Carroll’s CSR pyramid. According to this CSR pyramid, a business has four types of social responsibilities—being economically profitable, obeying the law, being ethically responsible, and donating to philanthropic causes [5,6]. Sustainable CSR activities are those initiatives that incorporate long-term environmental, social, and economic considerations into their implementation. When assessing the sustainability of a company’s activities, several criteria can be considered. While there may be variations in ranking on the context and specific industry, environmental impact like climate change mitigation, social impact like labor rights, and economic impact like long-term profitability can be commonly used to evaluate the sustainability of corporate activities.
Considering the nature of the business, unlike the CSR activities of general companies, the CSR activities of companies in the financial industry tend to be unique, with strong social and public good characteristics [7]. In particular, in the case of the insurance industry, among the various financial industries, the nature of the business itself implies helping people to overcome adversity; thus, insurance companies should undertake CSR activities related to its business nature. However, the current reality is that Korean insurance companies primarily focus on simplistic social contribution activities, such as making donations, rather than attaining sustainable management practices. While insurance companies are indeed involved in numerous social contribution activities, it remains challenging to measure the actual impact of these activities. This is primarily due to insurance companies prioritizing short-term performance. Given that insurance companies tend to have relatively high customer complaint rates and lower job reliability compared to banks and securities firms, CSR activities hold particular significance in this sector. Therefore, this study examines how Kyobo Life Insurance Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Kyobo Life), one of Korea’s leading life insurance companies, successfully pursues sustainability management through its CSR activities.
In 2000, Kyobo Life faced a complex management crisis, but the current Chairman, Shin Chang-jae, who was formerly a professor at the Medical School of Seoul National University, took office as the new Chairman and proclaimed a new vision, advocating change and innovation. Kyobo Life Insurance faced a complex management crisis in 2000. At the time, the company was on the verge of bankruptcy due to the foreign exchange crisis. Asset loss was up to KRW 2.4 trillion, and even after overcoming it, we were in a vicious circle where the deficit continued. In addition, insurance contracts were not substantial enough that 3 out of 10 cases were false. In this difficult time, the current Chairman, Shin Chang-jae, a former professor at Seoul National University’s medical school, took office as the new Chairman and declared a new vision for Kyobo Life Insurance, promoting internal stability with change and innovation at the forefront. Additionally, he has consistently practiced ethical and customer-oriented management, achieving remarkable growth in terms of not only the company’s brand image but also its financial performance. In particular, Kyobo Life’s management philosophy based on ethical management and customer-oriented management has been the foundation of various social contribution activities that Kyobo Life is currently carrying out. The spirit of ‘honesty and sincerity’, which has been emphasized since the founder Shin Yong-ho, has been established as ethical management, and the spirit of ‘customer orientation’ and ‘customer satisfaction’ has been established as customer-oriented management. In Kyobo Life’s “Vision2025, To become the leading financial company delivering value in art & culture by 2025”, ethical management and customer-oriented management are core values, suggesting a direction for Kyobo Life’s sustainable future.
Therefore, this study aims to first explore the types of CSR activities pursued by Kyobo Life to achieve sustainable management and, consequently, create corporate values that comply with the essence of the business. Second, this study seeks to examine the characteristics of Kyobo Life’s CSR activities by analyzing three aspects, the environmental aspect, the social aspect, and the economic aspect, based on the triple bottom line (TBL) framework, which is a framework for sustainability management.
Based on the case study methodology, the study initially examined the influence of changes in Kyobo Life’s CSR activities on its sustainability management philosophy. Subsequently, these CSR activities were evaluated from three perspectives of sustainability management to determine their correlation with sustainable practices. To accomplish this, Kyobo Life has consistently published sustainability reports since 2001, incorporating relevant figures to facilitate reader comprehension.

2. The Theoretical Background

CSR refers to the social responsibility of a company to not only pursue profits but also abide by laws and ethics and have a positive impact on society [8]. Professor Carroll (1979), who is the first to introduce the concept of corporate social performance (CSP), views CSR from a stakeholder perspective. He categorizes CSR into economic, legal, ethical, and philanthropic (discretionary) responsibilities, arguing that these responsibilities include society’s expectations from a business at any given point in time [6]. The current study seeks to apply Carroll’s (1979) concept and categorization of CSR activities. Although CSR is the most central and established concept in modern business and social research, an academic consensus on the concept and scope of CSR has not yet been reached. This is because the definition of CSR differs depending on the researchers or the environment in which a company is located, and many previous researchers have presented varying opinions since the concept of CSR itself is a truly broad concept [9]. Another reason for variations in the concept of CSR is that companies successfully conduct CSR activities that focus on external expansion based on a sense of duty or for show; however, they do not possess the internal sophistication to understand the true nature of CSR [10]. Moreover, even when examining the relationship between CSR and corporate value, which is widely used as a criterion for judging CSR performance, research results have been inconsistent [11]. Studies undertaken by various researchers, such as Schwart (1968), Cochran and Wood (1985), Posnikoff (1997), and David et al. (2006), argue that a positive relationship exists between CSR activities and corporate performance [12,13,14,15]. In contrast, other studies, such as those by Blomstorm and Davis (1975), Vance et al. (1975), and Barnea and Rubin (2005), claim that there is a negative correlation between CSR activities and corporate value or corporate performance [11,16,17,18].
Sustainability management is a concept that pursues the long-term value of a company by considering all economic, environmental, and social aspects that affect corporate management activities. The more interest there is in creating a sustainable business ecosystem, the more companies can achieve practical growth in the long term rather than maximizing profits in the short term [19]. According to the Brundtland Commission, sustainability involves addressing global environmental and social problems and providing a general framework that permits the development of solutions to manage these problems [20]. Additionally, the Korean Standards Association defines sustainability management as management activities that promote communication between organizations and stakeholders and enhance organizational values by pursuing the economic, environmental, and social sustainability of organizations [21]. In the prior literature, sustainability management refers to the formulation, implementation, and evaluation of the decisions and actions related to environmental and socio-economic sustainability [22,23,24,25,26]. This includes decisions and actions at the individual, organizational, and societal levels [27]. Furthermore, Baumgartner and Rauter (2017) define sustainable development as an economic, environmental, and social development that meets the needs of the present and does not prevent future generations from meeting their own needs [28,29]. Elkington (1998) presented a so-called triple bottom line approach in which three areas, i.e., the economic, environmental, and social areas, form the axes of sustainability management. This means undertaking a coordinated effort to ensure that businesses are economically viable, environmentally sound, and socially responsible [24].
In Korea, the practice of sustainability management has been mainly undertaken by non-financial companies like manufacturing companies. However, among the various financial sectors, there has been a recent interest in the social responsibility or sustainability management of insurance companies that have relatively strong social characteristics [30]. In particular, the Insurance Working Group (IWG), under the United Nations Environment Program Finance Initiative (UNEPFI 2007), views sustainability management from the perspective of insurance companies as the act of making business decisions in a complex way by considering the economic, environmental, and social factors required for long-term growth [31]. Recent sustainability management studies measure CSR performance by targeting the three aspects (the triple bottom line) of economic, environmental, and social factors [30,32].
Since sustainable development was defined as an ethical concept by the World Commission on Environment and Development in 1987, numerous studies have investigated the correlation between corporate CSR activities and sustainability. Freeman (1984) emphasized that the purpose of a business is to consider the interests of all its stakeholders, meet their needs, and provide services. Today, many firms actively participate in the social needs of the communities in which they operate, as well as in environmental protection [33,34,35]. Therefore, companies seek to play a positive role in terms of social issues and recognize that the CSR activities they practice will serve as a tool to ensure the success of sustainable development [35]. Ait and Serra (2018) argued that corporate CSR activities and sustainable development should coexist by uncovering the fairly strong correlation between economic, environmental, and social performance using the c-vine copula model [36]. According to Ebner and Baumgartner (2006), insufficient consultation and a lack of partnership in relation to CSR policy implementation can have a negative and unsustainable impact on companies, which implies that the effective implementation of CSR can potentially ensure sustainable management [33]. Furthermore, several Korean studies report the positive impact of corporate CSR activities on sustainability. Kim, Yun-Hwan (2012) stated that CSR activities have a positive effect on corporate image and sustainability [37]. Kim Jae-Young and Kim Hyun-Soo (2020) judged that there is a causal relationship between CSR activities, corporate image, and sustainability [38], and Kim Joo-Heon and Cho Jung (2011) argued that CSR activities eventually have a positive impact on corporate image and economic sustainability [39].
Therefore, the environmental and economic responsibility of CSR activities and sustainability can be viewed as mutually related concepts. It was premised that the CSR activities of life insurance companies in the financial industry naturally have an impact on sustainable management. Therefore, in this study, the CSR activities and sustainability management of life insurance companies are viewed as a broad concept “umbrella construct” that is loosely used to comprehensively explain a series of diverse phenomena [40].
The main theoretical background of the motivation for companies to undertake CSR activities and sustainability management is based on stakeholder theory, wherein the survival of companies is influenced not only by shareholders but also by various stakeholders such as workers, governments, consumers, and local communities [41,42]. Freeman (1984) defines all groups or individuals that can influence or be affected by the achievement of organizational goals as stakeholders and argued that companies should faithfully fulfill their obligations to these stakeholders [34]. This approach helps to legitimize new forms of management understanding by reconceptualizing the nature of the company and new forms of stakeholders beyond the existing categories of stakeholders [34,43]. More recently, researchers have begun favoring the stakeholder theory approach in discussing CSR [44,45]. Clarkson (1995) explained that a company comprises a complex network of stakeholder relationships. In fact, it is argued that companies can analyze CSP more effectively by using a framework that is based on stakeholder relationship management [46]. Additionally, Maignan et al. (2005) argued that individual companies can be considered responsible for their stakeholders only, even if they are generally responsible for society as a whole [47]. Thus, the ultimate goal of stakeholder theory is to allocate organizational resources to various stakeholder groups inside and outside the company while achieving a sustainable win–win result from a long-term perspective [5,48].
The Korean Standards Association utilizes the Korean Sustainability Index (KSI), which is based on ISO26000, as an index to evaluate the level of corporate sustainability. Kyobo Life, the case subject of this study, is a company that excels in sustainable management and has been ranked first in the KSI for 11 consecutive years. Moreover, as an indicator to evaluate the sustainability management of the insurance industry, the Korea Insurance Industry Sustainability Index (ERISS, Economic Research Institute for Sustainable Society) is used to measure the sustainability management score of insurance companies by revising and supplementing the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) guidelines. Moreover, Kyobo Life’s sustainability report is prepared in accordance with these guidelines. Furthermore, evaluations and efforts related to sustainability management in the insurance industry can be found in the activities of the Insurance Working Group under the UNEPEI. These issues cover nine areas such as environmental change, microinsurance, lifelong income, health, environmental liability, etc. [30,49,50].

3. Sustainability Management through Kyobo Life’s CSR Activities

3.1. Kyobo Life’s CSR History

Kyobo Life Insurance is the third-largest life insurance company among 24 life insurance companies in Korea, with its total assets amounting to KRW 126 trillion as of the end of 2020. It was founded in 1958 by Daesan Shin Yong-ho based on the founding ideologies of “National Capital Formation” and “National Education Promotion”. In particular, founder Shin Yong-ho was a pioneer of insurance that established himself in Korea by adopting the belief that “there is nothing free and secret in the world” in quality management, and won the World Insurance Award, called the Nobel Prize in Insurance, from the World Insurance Association (IIS) in 1983.
As shown in Figure 1, the changes in Kyobo Life’s CSR activities can be divided into three stages. The first phase refers to the period from the establishment of Kyobo Life Insurance to 2000, i.e., the period before the current Chairman, Chang-jae Shin, participated in its management. During this period, CSR activities were undertaken mainly based on the management philosophies of “Jeong-Do management”, which embodies a sense of sincerity, loyalty, and dedication [51], and “Transparent management” during the time of founder Shin Yong-ho, the father of Chairman Shin Chang-jae. The ‘New Management’, proclaimed in 1987, is a compilation of the founder’s management philosophy contained in Kyobo Life’s founding ideology, motto, and basic management philosophy at the time, emphasizing talent-centered management through employee satisfaction. As a result of this ‘new management’, it ranked second after Samsung Life as a life insurance company that college students want to work for [52]. Additionally, Kyobo Book Centre (1980), Daesan Agriculture Foundation (1991), and Kyobo Education Foundation (1997) were all established during this period. Therefore, CSR activities during this period should be viewed as a period of social contribution activities that fit the characteristics of the established company through subsidiaries established for special purposes rather than being led by Kyobo Life.
The second stage of Kyobo Life’s CSR activities took place in the year 2000, when the current Chairman, Chang-jae Shin, assumed the role of CEO and declared a commitment to ‘change and innovation’ in the company’s management. During this period, Kyobo Life became a member of the ‘UN Global Compact (UNGC)’, which is an international agreement on CSR. This stage can be considered as the period before 2010. It was also the time when CSR activities were conducted by reflecting the management philosophy represented by “ethical management and customer-centered management” of Chairman Shin Chang-jae, who succeeded the management. Kyobo Life was faced with a complicated management crisis in 2000, but when Chairman Shin Chang-jae took office as CEO, he proclaimed a new vision with change and innovation and consistently practiced ethical management and customer-centered management; financial performance has also achieved remarkable growth. In particular, Kyobo Life’s ethical management, which has a more comprehensive meaning than customer satisfaction management, is not limited to a passive concept of paying attention to the disadvantaged without tax evasion like other companies. It has the meaning of continuously growing and developing by sharing with all stakeholders of Kyobo Life according to the degree of contribution, the fruits of the achievements achieved through the practice of customer satisfaction while complying with laws and regulations. Moreover, Kyobo Life’s Ethical management has become a very important foundation for various CSR activities currently being practiced by Kyobo Life [53]. Therefore, it can be said that Kyobo Life began its full-fledged CSR activities at this time.
The third stage started in 2011 with the publication of the first sustainable management report by life insurance companies and has continued to the present day. During this period, Kyobo Life Insurance has been increasingly engaged in sustainable management, expanding its ESG (environment, social, and governance) elements to encompass all aspects of its management activities and integrate them into its overall ESG management framework. In other words, Kyobo Life is showing characteristics of actively implementing CSR activities not only in financial performance but also in non-financial performance in social and environmental sectors. In particular, in Kyobo Life’s sustainability system, the action items set based on the sustainable management philosophy are systematically managed by selecting specific key performance indicators (KPIs) that can check the implementation status. Additionally, Kyobo Life is making smooth progress in its transition to a digital environment, which all companies must accept as fate.

3.2. Kyobo Life’s CSR Activities Categorized from the TBL Perspective

3.2.1. Social Aspect

Kyobo Life selects material sustainability issues through relevance and significance evaluations based on the materiality evaluation method presented by ISO 26000 and GRI Standards. A total of 14 material issues were selected in the materiality assessment of the 2020 Sustainability Report (Figure 2), and among them, eight issues (Information security and personal information protection, Socio-economic law compliance, Creating a good working environment, Employees competency development and nurturing talent, Financial planner competency reinforcement, Practice customer-oriented management, Spread a culture of trusted customer protection, Strengthening access to financial service) were issues related to society, and five issues in the governance aspect were (Strengthening ethical management, Stable asset management, Enhancement of financial soundness, Establishing transparent and diverse corporate governance, and Proactive risk management) and environment (Expand investment in eco-friendly energy sectors). As such, among Kyobo Life’s CSR activities, CSR activities are the most actively practiced in the social aspect. As of 2020, the most important issue was ‘Strengthening ethical management’, ‘Strengthening access to financial services’, ‘Complying with the socio-economic laws’, and ‘Expand investment in eco-friendly energy sectors’ were identified as new issues [54].
Additionally, in terms of its implementation of the 2020~2021 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), four (No poverty, Good Health, and Well-being, Quality Education, Gender Equality) out of the six goals (No poverty, Good Health and Well-being, Quality Education, Gender Equality, Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure, and Climate Action) selected by Kyobo Life are social issues. Major activities related to the “No poverty” goal include “Ties of Love” activities, the “Kyobo Dasomi Sound and Light Program”, and supporting poor farmers in Vietnam by providing seeds and farming tools for economic independence. The activities related to the “Good Health and Well-being” goal preserve the characteristics of a life insurance company and mainly include the provision of health insurance and healthcare services and the provision of health checkup services and health information to customers. Activities associated with the “Quality Education” goal are the most actively implemented activities by Kyobo Life since this goal is related to its founding ideology; major related activities include the “Kyobo Hope-Dasom Scholarships”, Kyobo’s youth leadership program “Change”, support for the ”Kyobo Life Youth Athletics Cup Championship”, the ”Kyobo Sports Talent Development Scholarship”, the “Northeast Asia March for Undergraduate Students”, and the “Kyobo Dream Makers”. Furthermore, Kyobo Life’s major activities related to the “Gender Equality” goal include fair recruitment and the implementation of a performance evaluation program, the operation of the “KWIN mentoring for female employees” program, the “Female Leadership Conference”, and promoting “declared gender equality” through the UNGC’s Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs) (Figure 3) [54].
Kyobo Life places significant importance on CSR activities and sustainability management, particularly concerning internal stakeholders such as customers, employees, and financial planners. Although activities related to external stakeholders, such as regulatory authorities, local communities, and ESG-related non-governmental organizations, may be viewed as less significant, Kyobo Life remains actively engaged in CSR initiatives targeting internal stakeholders. This focus can be attributed to the nature of the life insurance industry, which deals with intangible products and services and prioritizes risk management for any contingency.
Chairman Shin Chang-jae considers ‘customer-centered management” a crucial aspect of Kyobo Life’s operation. This approach serves as a core value and an integral part of the company’s CSR activities, aligning with the broader goal of sustainable management within the financial sector. As a testament to its efforts, Kyobo Life has consistently achieved high rankings in the National Customer Satisfaction Index (NCSI), with an average score of 75 points over the past five years.
Recently, Kyobo Life has adopted “Go to digital Kyobo beyond survival” as its management policy. The company aims to enhance customer value by prioritizing customer-focused digital innovation and strengthening customer engagement initiatives. Internally, Kyobo Life conducts regular customer satisfaction surveys to ensure customer-centric management. Additionally, the company has implemented a consumer protection system to provide accurate information and safeguard customer rights.
Meanwhile, there are numerous businesses that differentiate themselves by emphasizing customer perspectives. These enterprises proactively respond to environmental changes by leveraging digital technologies to enhance product and service development. Kyobo Life has also undertaken innovative projects to enhance customer value, such as the AI-based insurance fraud prediction system, K-FDS, the AI-based underwriting system BARO, the healthcare app service Kare offering health promotion and mental care services, and the industry’s first “Insurance loan smart withdrawal” service using fintech technology [54,55,56]. By focusing on CSR activities and embracing customer-centric management, Kyobo Life strives to provide value and adapt to changing market dynamics.
Kyobo Life has established a sustainable management system by recognizing the joint development of all stakeholders as the true social responsibility of a company. They strive to create value through sustainable management activities that align with the essence of the life insurance business across economic, social, and environmental aspects. In their sustainability management system, stakeholders are categorized based on the SPICE (Society-Partner-Investor-Customer-Employee) model that Sisodia (2007) defined to describe the corporate stakeholders [27,57,58], and all stakeholders were identified by reflecting the standards presented by 「ISO 26000」, 「AA1000SES」, and 「GRI Standards」 to clearly indicate the purpose of their participation. Recently, due to the increasing importance of partnering in the digital transformation era, Kyobo Life has classified partners as major stakeholders based on global standards. Each stakeholder is defined individually according to these standards, with principles and KPI indicators established to contribute to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN-SDGs) through sustainable management. Kyobo Life also categorizes stakeholders into core stakeholders, strategic stakeholders, and environmental stakeholders based on their significance in the company’s sustainability management materiality assessment.
Core stakeholders are crucial for the company’s survival and employees, customers, shareholders, and investors. Strategic stakeholders play essential roles in addressing specific issues and encompass governments, related organizations, and local community partners. Environmental stakeholders encompass the media, non-profit organizations (NPOs), socially underprivileged groups, partners, research institutes, and experts (Figure 4) [54,55]. These stakeholder divisions help guide the purpose of engagement and ensure focused efforts towards sustainable management practices.
In 2012, the company solidified its commitment to sustainable management by specifying its sustainability management philosophy of “pursuing shared development with all stakeholders” in the preface to the company’s articles of incorporation. In 2010, it became the first domestic insurance company to join the UN Global Compact (UNGC), an international CSR agreement, and declared sustainable management internally and externally. Additionally, since 2011, the first life insurance company to consistently publish the Sustainability Report and communicate with stakeholders. Kyobo Life’s ‘Sustainability Report’ has been titled “People and the Future” to emphasize the importance of people who are the key players and beneficiaries of the future. It contains the spirit of respect for humanity that exists for the sake of people-centered management. Therefore, Kyobo Life’s current CSR activities, sustainability management, and ESG management all emphasize people-centered [54].
In particular, Kyobo Life’s focus on the social aspect of CSR activities is in line with the direction of Kyobo Life’s CSR and sustainable management activities, which are in line with the essence of the life insurance business. These various social activities reflected the characteristics of the life insurance industry and had a positive effect on improving the brand image of Kyobo Life. However, it can be seen that the issue of diversity, human rights, and social equality is still in its infancy, and it is necessary to actively introduce management activities suitable for the global trend [54].

3.2.2. Environmental Aspect

Among Kyobo Life’s various CSR activities, its environmental achievements are as follows. First, it began to actively participate in global environmental initiatives by declaring itself as “coal-free finance” and joining as a signatory on the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP). While efforts are being made worldwide to respond to the climate crisis, Kyobo Life, sympathizing with its commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and carbon neutrality, has declared 「Coal-Free Finance」. In addition, by joining the CDP, an organization that shares environmental information with financial institutions around the world, they built infrastructure and participated in efforts to respond to climate change. Second, the company is enhancing eco-friendly workplaces by implementing initiatives such as the establishment of a paperless office environment and promoting the use of an electronic subscription system. Third, Kyobo Life’s socially responsible investment (SRI) has spent about KRW 3.75 trillion as of 2020 on eco-friendly financial investment in new and renewable energy, such as solar and wind power, and social overhead capital (SOC) infrastructure, which has been started since 2010. It accounts for 41.6% of the total amount [54,55].
Despite these achievements, Kyobo Life’s environmental CSR activities are still the least active. As shown in Table 1, in the environmental aspect of the Kyobo Life Sustainability Report, it was calculated as the proportion of the environmental sector in the amount of social contribution support until 2015. Since then, the change in the proportion of eco-friendly investment to the amount of socially responsible investment (SRI) has replaced the disclosure of environmental indicators, which shows that Kyobo Life should further expand its environmental activities in the future.
In order to effectively address climate change and integrate sustainable and responsible practices into asset management, it is important for Kyobo Life to go beyond mere responses such as reducing electricity consumption and establishing a paperless office environment. The company should evaluate the effectiveness of its climate change management system, including policies and strategies, and assess how well its tangible and intangible assets are practicing socially responsible investment (SRI) and preparing for climate change risks. Taking a comprehensive approach will enable Kyobo Life to better align its operations with sustainable practices and climate change mitigation.

3.2.3. Economic Aspect

Kyobo Life, which has only been involved in life insurance for the past 64 years, under the management policy of “Building a foundation for success in the digital age”, despite difficulties in the business environment, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, is focusing on an “ambidextrous management” approach that strengthens profit creation and builds a foundation for future growth [54]. Additionally, in response to the introduction of the International Financial Reporting Standard 17 (IFRS17) and the Korea-Insurance Capital Standard (K-ICS), i.e., the new accounting standards and financial soundness regulations, respectively, Kyobo Life received a Moody’s Rating of A1 for seven consecutive years and a Fitch Rating of A+, the highest level in the insurance industry, for nine consecutive years. Furthermore, it has received CCM certification from the Korea Consumer Agency for eight consecutive years and has maintained the top position in the life insurance sector in the Korea Sustainability Index (KSI) for twelve consecutive years.
Kyobo Life exists in a difficult business environment wherein face-to-face sales are shrinking due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the entrance of big tech and platform companies in the insurance industry, and increasing financial market volatility. However, owing to differentiated marketing and proactive asset management based on strategy and thorough risk management, the company continues to grow steadily. As shown in Figure 5, Kyobo Life’s total assets increased by 4.2% year-on-year to approximately KRW 130.9 trillion based on the consolidated financial statements at the end of fiscal year 2021, and the return on equity (ROE) also rose by 4.2% year-on-year. Also, in terms of stability, RBC (Risk Based Capital) was 266.6%, down 66.8% from the previous year. Based on these financial performances, operating performance also grew. Insurance premium income by product increased by 10.7% year-on-year to KRW 15.81 trillion through customer-centered digital innovation, product development that meets various customer needs, and active targeting of the 3rd party guarantee market.
Moreover, the growth potential of the life insurance market is slowing down due to changes in the population structure caused by an aging population. In particular, in preparation for the introduction of K-ICS and IFRS17, the industry as a whole has given importance to protection-type sales, and competition has intensified, but Kyobo Life’s net income is steadily growing. In addition, Kyobo Life is making efforts to reduce and eliminate management uncertainties in advance by quantifying risks and systematically managing them and has thoroughly managed the RBC ratio, an indicator of the soundness of Insurance Companies.
From a long-term perspective, Kyobo Life provides a promised guarantee to customers through stable asset management and strives to secure the company’s competitiveness. To this end, it has adopted an asset liability management (ALM) policy suitable for the characteristics of long-term insurance products of life insurers that pursues stable profits through strategic asset allocation (SAA) from a long-term perspective and tactical asset allocation (TAA) from a short-term perspective. TAA involves actively responding to financial market fluctuations and securing excess profits [16].

4. Conclusions

4.1. Analysis Results and Implications

Kyobo Life, in line with the nature of its business from an early age, aims to coexist with the local community as a corporate citizen and to develop jointly with all stakeholders. Recognizing that long-term and continuous CSR activities, rather than show-off events, are the true social responsibility of a company, it maintains strong ties with stakeholders. Kyobo Life’s sustainable management is further systematized and advanced by accumulating CSR activities and social contribution activities that fit the essence of the life insurance industry, giving stakeholders a sense that Kyobo Life is realizing the value of coexistence with society. In this study, we explored what kind of CSR activities Kyobo Life is conducting sustainable management through, and as a result, it has been able to create corporate values that match the essence of the business. Additionally, the characteristics of CSR activities were analyzed along three aspects of sustainability management: the environmental, social, and economic aspects. Consequently, we identified the following characteristics.
First, based on the analysis of Kyobo Life’s CSR activities from three perspectives, the social, environmental, and economic perspectives, it is evident that Kyobo Life undertakes a greater number of social CSR activities. According to Kyobo Life’s sustainability report, material issues are selected by evaluating their relevance and significance evaluation as a materiality evaluation method as suggested by the ISO 26000 and GRI Standards. Through this, we draw out common factors that can influence the interests of internal and external stakeholders and Kyobo Life’s management activities and give priority to implementation. Among the 14 core issues selected through the 2020 materiality test, 2 are social issues, while 8 of the remaining 12 were non-financial activity factors. Therefore, this confirms that CSR activities that are faithful to the essence of the life insurance business tend to focus more on social activities. These various activities in the social aspect reflected the characteristics of the life insurance industry and were implemented, which had a positive effect on enhancing the brand image of Kyobo Life. However, there is a need to introduce CSR activities suitable for global trends in issues of diversity, human rights, and social equality.
On the other hand, the activities in the environmental aspect were insignificant compared to the activities in the social aspect. In particular, activities in the environmental aspect could not be continued any longer because the performance did not match the content calculated as the proportion of the environmental sector in the amount of support for social contribution activities until 2015. Since then, the change in the proportion of eco-friendly investment to the amount of socially responsible investment (SRI) has replaced the disclosure of environmental indicators, which shows that Kyobo Life should further expand its environmental activities in the future. From an environmental perspective, in the future, instead of reducing electricity consumption and establishing a paperless office environment, which Kyobo Life is currently approaching only as a simple response to climate change, it is necessary to analyze how Kyobo Life’s tangible and intangible assets are practicing SRI in terms of asset management or climate change risk in preparation and approach climate change in a way that evaluates how well the climate change management system, such as policies and strategies, has been established.
Second, one of the activities that Kyobo Life considers important and is widely implemented, both internally and externally, is undertaking sustainability management via CSR activities related to customers, employees, and internal stakeholders, such as financial planners, from a social perspective. In other words, it focuses on the family, money, and health fields. In particular, several businesses differentiate themselves and undertake great efforts from a customer perspective. In recent times, these businesses actively respond to environmental changes by focusing on issues related to product and service development based on digital technologies. Examples of innovative businesses that have enhanced customer value include the AI-based insurance fraud prediction system K-FDS, BARO, Kare, and an “insurance contract loan smart withdrawal” service. However, CSR activities related to external stakeholders, such as the regulatory and supervisory authorities, the protection of insurance consumers, and the provision of financial insurance services to socially disadvantaged and low-income groups, must be supplemented.
Third, Kyobo Life is actively pursuing sustainable management via its CSR activities, as seen from its sustainability reports that have been continuously published in communication with stakeholders since 2011. This suggests that the CSR activities undertaken by a company gain more synergy when detailed sustainability management strategies are implemented simultaneously, suggesting that the continuity of performance is possible. CSR activities that pursue the common development of all the stakeholders of a company facilitate true sustainability management. Kyobo Life has established a sustainable management system early on, recognizing that the joint development of all stakeholders is the true social responsibility of a company. All of Kyobo Life’s stakeholders are based on the Society–Partner–Investor–Customer–Employee (SPICE) model, which describes the various corporate stakeholders as defined by Sisodia (2007) [58]. These stakeholders were identified based on the standards presented by the ISO 26000, the AA1000SES, and the GRI Standards to clearly indicate the purpose of all stakeholder engagement [27,57,58]. Additionally, by reflecting global standards, individually defining the identified stakeholders, and establishing principles and KPI indicators for each stakeholder to lay the foundation for stakeholder participation, Kyobo Life has contributed to the achievement of the UN-SDGs [18].
Furthermore, this study has the following practical implications.
First, in the current era of modern management, non-financial management factors, such as business ethics and sincerity, enhance corporate value. The sustainability management system that Kyobo Life has developed by undertaking various CSR activities over a long period of time sets an example for companies that need to undertake CSR activities while chasing future management trends. Although the life insurance industry is facing a growth gap, the success of Kyobo Life, which established a sustainable management system based on the results of incorporating the essence of its business into its CSR activities, suggests a lot beyond all insurance companies as well as industry boundaries. This study highlights that a company’s CSR activities have a positive impact on enhancing long-term corporate value. Therefore, it is crucial for companies to manage their CSR initiatives at a company-wide and strategic level. Rather than viewing CSR activities as solely fulfilling immediate social responsibilities, companies should consider them as integral components of a long-term strategy. Recognizing that sustainability management aims to establish long-term value, companies should understand that CSR activities geared towards their future value serve as vital tools in building a sustainable management system.
Second, among domestic companies, only about 100 companies publish sustainability reports annually, and among them, only about 20 companies disclose them on the exchange, but the number of companies that publish new sustainability reports every year is increasing. From 2025, companies listed on the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) with assets of more than KRW 2 trillion must publish sustainability management reports. Moreover, by 2030, all KOSPI-listed companies will be required to publish sustainability reports [36]. In recent times, companies have been asked to examine their non-financial performance and establish sustainable management strategies directly or indirectly, even during the listing or Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) stage. In such an environment, Kyobo Life, the first life insurance company to consistently publish a sustainability report annually since 2011, is setting a good example for sustainability management activities in the pursuit of shared development and communication with stakeholders. It is not easy to consider both financial and non-financial indicators simultaneously when calculating corporate value. However, if the philosophy of coexistence and co-prosperity with all stakeholders is adopted, the true value on the path to sustainable management is that companies will be able to grow and develop together with their stakeholders.

4.2. Limitations and Future Research Directions

As a qualitative study, this study analyzes Kyobo Life’s CSR activities from three sustainability management perspectives and explores how the results of these activities affect its establishment of corporate values that match the company’s business nature. Despite deriving meaningful features and implications from these research results, this study has the following limitations.
First, due to the fundamental nature of CSR activities, it was difficult to analyze the governance aspect, emphasized in the recent sustainability management framework, of Kyobo Life’s CSR activities. In other words, the most unsatisfactory aspect of pursuing sustainable management via CSR activities is the governance aspect. Future research should develop and analyze a CSR model in this regard.
Second, this study examines the single case study of Kyobo Life, which belongs to the insurance industry. A more generalized and three-dimensional analysis is possible if various comparative studies of other life insurance companies are conducted in the future using multiple case studies.

Author Contributions

Writing—original draft, Y.B.A.; Writing—review & editing, H.C.P.; Supervision, H.C.P. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Funding

This research received no external funding.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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Figure 1. Classification of Kyobo Life’s CSR activities by stage.
Figure 1. Classification of Kyobo Life’s CSR activities by stage.
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Figure 2. Sustainability Report 2020: Materiality Assessment Matrix.
Figure 2. Sustainability Report 2020: Materiality Assessment Matrix.
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Figure 3. Sustainability Report 2020: SDGs Implementation Status between 2020 and 2021.
Figure 3. Sustainability Report 2020: SDGs Implementation Status between 2020 and 2021.
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Figure 4. Sustainability Report 2020: Identification based on stakeholder engagement purpose.
Figure 4. Sustainability Report 2020: Identification based on stakeholder engagement purpose.
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Figure 5. Sustainability Report 2021: Key Performance Index.
Figure 5. Sustainability Report 2021: Key Performance Index.
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Table
Table 1. Sustainability Report 2020_Environmental Reporting Indicators.
Table 1. Sustainability Report 2020_Environmental Reporting Indicators.
YearShare of SRIShare of Social Contribution
Activities Support		Total Assets (Unit: Trillion)Net Income
(unit: Billions of Dollars)
As a
Percentage of Assets		Proportion of
Eco-Friendly
Investment in SRI		Proportion of Net
Income		Amount of
Support
(Unit: 100 Million)		Proportion of
Contribution
Activities in the
Environment Sector
20106.7% 1.9%11813%57.96389
20117.6% 2.6%1438%62.45455
20128.1%23.6%3.5%1841.5%75.15956
20138.6%26.6%3.2%1250.6%78.63961
20148.8%28.5%2.3%1210.3%85.85175
20158.5%36.5%3.3%2020.1%92.06079
20168.8%29.8%4.2%214 96.75145
20178.5%30.9%2.3%146 104.56400
20189.1%33.3%1.9%103 108.85280
20199.4%39.2%6.8%352 116.16282
20209.8%41.6%1.5%57 125.74522
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Ahn, Y.B.; Park, H.C. Sustainability Management through Corporate Social Responsibility Activities in the Life Insurance Industry: Lessons from the Success Story of Kyobo Life Insurance in Korea. Sustainability 2023, 15, 11632. https://doi.org/10.3390/su151511632

AMA Style

Ahn YB, Park HC. Sustainability Management through Corporate Social Responsibility Activities in the Life Insurance Industry: Lessons from the Success Story of Kyobo Life Insurance in Korea. Sustainability. 2023; 15(15):11632. https://doi.org/10.3390/su151511632

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Ahn, Young Back, and Hyun Chae Park. 2023. "Sustainability Management through Corporate Social Responsibility Activities in the Life Insurance Industry: Lessons from the Success Story of Kyobo Life Insurance in Korea" Sustainability 15, no. 15: 11632. https://doi.org/10.3390/su151511632

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