European Journal of Management and Marketing Studies ISSN: 2501 - 9988 ISSN-L: 2501 - 9988 Available on-line at: http://www.oapub.org/soc Volume 2 │ Issue 2 │ 2017 doi: 10.5281/zenodo.848807 THE ROLE OF CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION IN DEVELOPMENT OF MARKETING AND ENHANCED SALE OF PRODUCTS AND SERVICES OF INSURANCE COMPANIES Fereydoon Omidi1i, Iman Abadar2, Adibeh Jorfi3 Assistant Professor, Department of International Business Management, 1 Khoramshahr-Persian Gulf Branch, Islamic Azad University, Khoramshahr, Iran 2,3 PhD Student, Department of International Business Management, Khoramshahr-Persian Gulf Branch, Islamic Azad University, Khoramshahr, Iran Abstract: Today, competition and customer-orientation has been enhanced and the firms have to be active in such environments. In this regard and for survival of organization in the current competition arena, considering issues such as creativity and innovation and making adequate marketing policies is important for the organizations. In this field, due to their underlying and dynamic role at the society, insurance companies have to provide high-quality services day by day to satisfy the customers. In this study, using theoretical approach and with reliance on recent studies, the role of creativity and innovation is investigated in development of marketing and increase in sale of products and services of insurance companies. In general, it could be mentioned that development of creativity in insurance industry could lead to improvement of indices such as profitability, market share, sale, customer satisfaction, subjectivity and positive image of organization and quality of services. Due to proving positive and direct correlation of innovation and creativity with marketing development and more sale of products and services of insurance companies, it would be better for the insurance companies and firms to facilitate availability of new innovations through acquiring external innovations and identify and attract and adjust the external knowledge through identification of external environment and internal research and development Copyright © The Author(s). All Rights Reserved. © 2015 – 2017 Open Access Publishing Group 161 Fereydoon Omidi, Iman Abadar, Adibeh Jorfi THE ROLE OF CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION IN DEVELOPMENT OF MARKETING AND ENHANCED SALE OF PRODUCTS AND SERVICES OF INSURANCE COMPANIES and take measure to increase the power of communicating competitors and transferring knowledge to the competitors with the aim of achievement of commercial goals of the organization as a step towards enhancement of innovative processes in business. Moreover, more focus of insurance companies on knowledge management and development of research activities to make and use the newest innovative achievements could enhance quality of services and develop marketing of insurance products. Keywords: creativity, innovation, marketing, insurance company, insurance products 1. Introduction Today, the most important concern of majority of organizations is to codify and implement strategies guaranteeing their success and survival under changed and complicated environmental conditions (Kazemi and Shakiba, 2013). The real war of countries in next decades will be neither on energy, not on the markets, but also the real war could be on human capitals. Hence, more than before, countries need people with developed talents and existential capabilities in such way that they could take benefit of their expertise, skill and ability of creative thinking properly. In research and industrial organizations, preservation of competitive advantage is depended on innovation (A'rabi and Mousavi, 2009). The available organizational resources, due to their portion in creating value, are not in same level. Hence, many scholars have emphasized the difference and have referred to the necessity of considering value of resources and identification of strategic resources (Sirmon et al, 2010: 2). Scholars believe that effective management of resources and intellectual assets is essential more than physical and financial assets to gain competitive advantage (Sengupta, Atri. Venkatesh, D.N, Sinha, 2013: 505). In view of "Resource-Oriented Attitude", success of economic firms is depended on efficient use of intangible assets and resources in line with tangible organizational assets. Insurance industry as one of the subsets of financial services is also based on various series of intangible resources. Zakeri et al (2013) have classified insurance in 4 main groups including human capital, structural capital, communicative capital (components of intellectual capital) and physical and financial capital. Physical and financial resources are less complicated than intangible resources because of their nature. Ambiguity and complexity of intangible organizational capitals could cause more complexity for their management compared to physical and financial capitals. On the other hand, achievement of intangible resources could be an important factor in creating difference and creating competitive advantage among knowledge-oriented firms such as European Journal of Management and Marketing Studies - Volume 2 │ Issue 2 │ 2017 162 Fereydoon Omidi, Iman Abadar, Adibeh Jorfi THE ROLE OF CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION IN DEVELOPMENT OF MARKETING AND ENHANCED SALE OF PRODUCTS AND SERVICES OF INSURANCE COMPANIES insurance companies (Sepahvand et al, 2016: 82). At the today's world, the companies could achieve competitive advantage based on the importance considered by them for evaluation, innovation and creativity. Marketing is one of the most fundamental factors to gain competitive advantage and for profitability of companies and the companies should have high capability to supply their products to the market and supply highquality services for their customers compared to their competitors. Moreover, at the current world, with reduced lifetime of products and rapid saturation of demand, innovation should be considered as significant factor, since the lifecycle and lifetime of products could be increased using innovation and the product could continue its life in the arena of competition. With intensified world competition, innovation has been changed into a required and vital component for strategy of companies, so that the companies could use efficient production process through that and act better in the market, gain credit, fame and positive reputation in view of customers and achieve reliable competitive advantage through this (Nopasand Asil and Ramezanpour, 2016: 96). Today, organizations with the ability to achieve higher levels of innovation could be considered among successful and progressive companies of the world. Therefore, innovation is the essential element of survival of organizations. For the new and important feature (innovation), there is a direct and strong correlation between suppliers of services and customers (Rahimi and Delafrooz, 2014). For downloading the full article, please access the following link: https://oapub.org/soc/index.php/EJMMS/article/view/178 European Journal of Management and Marketing Studies - Volume 2 │ Issue 2 │ 2017 163