Widespread political and economic changes over the past several decades have influenced MENA insurance firms’ business environment fundamentally. This study investigates the influence of business environment, political risk, governance and Shariah compliance on efficiency in the insurance market from 2007 to 2017 using unbalanced panel data from 125 listed insurance firms across MENA countries. The study emphasises that a less favourable business environment exerts pressure on insurance firms and also identified an improvement in efficiency over the sample period, which may be attributed to the role played by challenging business conditions in increasing efficiency. Further, the results showed that variability in general economic conditions and influence of governance indicators explain efficiency, while solvency has a multifaceted effect on efficiency. Finally, the study found that Islamic insurance’s relative failure to enhance efficiency may be attributable to its failure to establish a distinct identity or draw a clear line between its mode of operation and that of conventional insurance, as well as the issue of customer confidence. Overall, the study emphasises the importance of controlling business environmental conditions in cross-country efficiency studies.

在过去的几十年中，广泛的政治和经济变化从根本上影响了MENA保险公司的业务环境。这项研究使用来自中东和北非国家/地区的125家上市保险公司的不平衡面板数据，调查了2007年至2017年商业环境，政治风险，治理和伊斯兰教义遵守情况对保险市场效率的影响。该研究强调，不利的商业环境会给保险公司带来压力，并且还确定了样本期内效率的提高，这可能归因于挑战性业务条件在提高效率中所发挥的作用。此外，结果表明，总体经济状况的变化和治理指标的影响可以解释效率，而偿付能力对效率有多方面的影响。最后，该研究发现，伊斯兰保险公司未能相对提高效率的原因可能在于其未能确立其独特的身份或未能在其运营模式与传统保险模式之间划清界限，以及客户信心问题。总体而言，该研究强调了在跨国效率研究中控制商业环境条件的重要性。