Mapping marine insurance: a bibliometric review: a taxonomical study using bibliometric visualization and systematic analysis

Abstract

This study aims to identify the current trends in the literature on marine insurance by applying a bibliometric review of documents published in the Scopus database. This analysis was based on the most cited papers, most influential authors, countries, and organizations, as well as the most frequent keywords. In addition, qualitative content analysis was conducted. It reviewed 293 documents on marine insurance. Bibliometric analysis was performed using VOSviewer, and qualitative content analysis was performed using WordStat. The results identify three major clusters: (1) risk assessment, (2) marine insurance, and (3) the insurance industry. This paper also presents recommendations for future research in this field. The findings of this study have implications for marine insurance, such as new developments to be implemented in the insurance industry to enhance its efficiency. This study is the first to review marine insurance publications that can be largely used for insurance practices. This study provides an overview of how the literature on marine insurance research has developed, as well as a summary of the most influential authors, along with countries, organizations, and journal sources. This offers an opportunity for future research to focus on this topic.

Introduction

A bibliometric review is a research approach used to identify current trends and patterns in the literature within a given field of study. This approach was used to determine the direction and practice of a research field (Ortiz-Pimentel et al. 2020). In addition, this approach is not only an integral tool for determining the extent of influence of a researcher in a particular field but also informs about differences in terms of activity and impact, finds seniority of research activity, and explains the flow of information (Karanatsiou, et al. 2019).

Risk is a prevalent part of life, given that human cognition finds and fears the occurrence of risk in every event and aspect of life (Li et al. 2020). The impact of risk and its associated consequences are seen throughout life and work components, including marine-related events, which are the primary foundation behind marine insurance and its risk assessment. The foundation of marine and maritime insurance reflects the medieval age with the expansion of trade, which led people in business to take measures to protect themselves against voyage risks (Iodice and Piccinno, 2021). In addition, the development of modern science and technology and human understanding of the ocean has increased over the past few years, leading to an expansion in ocean development activities (He et al. 2020). Thus, marine insurance is a vital part of domestic and international trade that involves the transshipment of goods from one place to another via the sea. It is crucial to protect a shipment from any loss or damage that may be incurred by the shipment or the ship itself.

Marine insurance is the oldest form of insurance that protects shipping companies and cargo owners against various losses of the ship and/or cargo, along with managing risks in the event of unfortunate and unforeseen events, such as accidents, environment, damage to the property, or loss of life (Puscaciu and Ebiere 2019). Similarly, Rose (2012) defines marine insurance as the process of identification, categorization, assessment, and mitigation of threats to all formal and informal entities to limit capital losses in cargo, terminals, and transport, among others. As the name implies, it is not only for sea transport; it covers all transport through land, air, or water (Rose 2012). Marine insurance is immense and often required by certain international trade contracts. The marine industry has the characteristics of high investment and high risk, for which it is crucial to have a financial system of financing and risk control in place (He et al. 2020). To build a diversified financing channel, He et al. (2020) suggest that ocean policy banks and non-bank financial institutions should be established by taking measures from financial support organizations and financial institutions.

The purpose of this study is to promote an understanding of the worldwide influence of marine insurance research by analyzing related publications from 1864 to 2022. A bibliometric examination of marine insurance literature has been conducted to offer straightforward comprehension of the significant elements of the subject matter. Furthermore, this analysis highlights frameworks that can aid in improving the current situation. The study effectively presents the findings collected from various research endeavors and provides directions for future research. It is worth noting that no bibliometric analyses have been conducted on marine insurance, to our knowledge.

To the best of our knowledge, there is no single study on the bibliometric analysis of documents on marine insurance publications in the Scopus database; therefore, this study sheds light on said topic. This study contributes to the literature by evaluating the most relevant publications on marine insurance. The results identified three major clusters: (1) risk assessment, (2) marine insurance, and (3) insurance industry. In addition, the results reveal that marine insurance has experienced increasingly important growth in publications, reflecting its significant contribution to the marine research field. Additionally, this study identifies the authors, countries, and organizations that have been the most influential in marine insurance documents published in the Scopus database.

This study is significant in the field of marine insurance as it provides a detailed analysis of the literature, and identifies key themes, knowledge gaps, and emerging trends in the field. There is a lack of a comprehensive bibliometric review of the marine insurance literature, and this study fills the gap by using advanced methods such as bibliometric visualization and systematic analysis. The study's findings can inform future research, policy-making, and industry practices in marine insurance, making it a valuable research project in the field. The study contributes to the understanding of marine insurance by providing a foundation for future research and policy-making, making it a valuable resource for researchers, practitioners, and policymakers.

The remainder of this paper is organized as follows. "Literature review" section exhibits a literature review. Next, "Methodology" section explains the methodology and data. "Results and discussions" section presents the results and discussions, as well as directions for future research. Subsequently, "Content analysis" section exhibits the content analysis. Finally, "Conclusion" section concludes the paper.

Literature review

Marine risk assessment addresses ocean vessels operating in high-risk environments, thus attracting extensive attention (Adland et al. 2021). Risk assessment refers to the systematic analysis of business risks. The ideas and ideologies of risk management have experts searching for mitigating strategies (Georgeta and Alexandru 2017). Risk management strategies that effectively mitigate risk are recognized as risk management techniques. The simplest rendition of risk assessment is a combined effort to assess, identify, analyze, and process risks to an individual, asset, or environment. Judgment formation in risk assessment is a niche area that analyzes the tolerability of potentially harmful situations in an individual, investment, or environment under certain influential factors (Georgeta and Alexandru 2017). With this assessment in mind, the risk assessment of marine insurance aims to minimize monetary and human losses by ensuring that corrective measures are taken before a vessel leaves for a journey. However, vessels carrying this trade are highly capital-intensive assets costing millions of US dollars, which can far exceed the value of individual companies (Adland et al. 2021).

Heij and Knapp (2018) state that the growing importance of trade globally inadvertently increased the use of all supply channels, including marine routes. As opposed to air transport, maritime transport of goods is considered safe. The vessel maintains steady contact with the ground and has less fear of accidents, ceteris paribus. Over time, the consistent development of risk in marine-related transactions has urged many proficiencies in evaluating the notion of maritime risk closely in an attempt to develop mitigation techniques in marine insurance. Patterns soon emerged, and experts in the field gauged them to give birth to a set of methodologies and techniques that would aid in mitigating risk.

A generalized overview indicates that risk assessment in marine insurance will probably identify all preemptive issues likely to result in hazards. For instance, effective risk assessment in the field is likely to positively influence maritime transactions, given that the risk assessment will study the patterns of harm in the field, evaluate each hazard associated with the risk, and limit the possibility of a recurrence. Lorenc and Kuźnar (2018) posited that the effective implementation of risk assessment in marine insurance and associated fields has a positive influence on the entire process. The idea that a good start with a simple process flow is likely to have a good end applies in earnest here, whereby safety and security in marine insurance due to consistent risk assessment are likely to limit monetary and human loss in any maritime transaction (Lorenc and Kuźnar 2018). One of the key benefits of risk assessment in marine insurance is the fact that the effective identification of avenues susceptible to risk will help the instances of risks efficiently (Lorenc and Kuźnar 2018). Eggers (2019) confirms that among all instances of risks and losses in marine-related events, the likelihood of deliberate harm to ships and cargo is a potential issue that increases marine insurance demand and risk assessment. He et al. (2020) emphasized the importance of improving the current marine development strategy for the healthy and sustainable development of the marine economy. This is essential to stimulate the development of the marine economy during the landing and implementation of projects and the long-term development of marine enterprises.

Globalization is recognized as one of the most significant consequences of technology, following which better trade routes were designed, given that distances were reduced. This assessment ensures the smooth flow of goods, services, labor, and capital through risk assessment in marine insurance. The dynamic global trade environment is constantly exploited by entities worldwide, both positively and negatively. Rawlings (2018) ensures that the role of risk assessment in maritime insurance is to alleviate factors that support the positive exploitation of global trade and indefinitely limit the negative factors. Risk assessment in marine insurance has the potential to counter issues and hiccups that allow illegal exploitation of global marine trade routes and those that aim to disrupt the business flow of firms that positively influence the global economy and their respective national economy. Mokhtari and Ren (2014) proposed a risk assessment methodology that, in their perspective, can be implemented for practice as opposed to other methodologies and frameworks that have only been found to be effective on paper. A four-step framework initially requires risk identification. The quest to understand the extent of risk can be identified by the product of the impact and frequency of risk, a step recognized as risk evaluation. Similar to the risk assessment matrix, Mokhtari and Ren (2014) highlighted that a score that coincides with the score of risk influence and frequency of risk would identify the extent of recurrence and problem, which will allow experts to effectively focus on areas that require more attention and revert attention from areas that have the least risk. The particular step comes in at the third stage of the framework that aims to conduct risk mitigation. The last step is aimed at conducting risk monitoring and review, a step that is determined to understand how well the risk was evaluated and if there is a need for further assessment and correction. Failure to undertake the right measures is where the framework demands proficiency to start again from the second step.

Miller et al. (2016) posit that risk assessment in marine insurance has the potential to reduce illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing (IUU), given that the quest to reduce activity in IUU demands consistent monitoring and mitigation efforts, a prime part of risk assessment in marine insurance and marine activities altogether. In an attempt to undermine IUU, Miller et al. (2016) propose that logistics assessment allows a firm to claim insurance for damages incurred to assets while they are in transit. To ensure that the firm in question does not face the issue of warranty, Abd Ghadas and Ahmad (2017) highlight that the suspensive effect under the Insurance Act 2015 is likely to aid firms that face losses in the hands of aggressors. Miller et al. (2016) posit that site risk assessment in marine insurance allows firms to evaluate the inventory condition, the process of inventory management itself, the distribution, the loading process, the delivery process, and other attributes associated with an asset while in-transit storage. This aspect provides a comprehensive overview of asset delivery, loading, and docking transactions. The Post-loss Assessment in Risk Assessment of Marine Insurance allows for a comprehensive overview of prior accidents in marine transit, which allows firms and insurers to limit any similar recurrences altogether (Miller et al. 2016). For instance, identifying potential areas where aggressors consistently attack vessels will allow insurers and associated law enforcement bodies to assess the area to drive away and arrest aggressors.

The project Cargo Risk Services follows the methodology proposed by Mokhtari and Ren (2014), whereby issues, the probability of risk, and the impact of risk allow regulatory bodies to study the events and aspects that should be prioritized in the risk assessment of marine activities and marine insurance to mitigate them (Mokhtari and Ren 2014). The benefits and significance of risk assessment in marine insurance are not the only approaches firms face in the marine industry. Following the theory of Yin and Yang, everything in the world, even risk assessment in marine insurance, faces issues and complexities. Every good in the world is associated with an evil, and every right is associated with a wrong (Mokhtari and Ren 2014)). For instance, Mokhtari and Ren (2014) posited that the availability of many safety and security regulations in the risk assessment of marine insurance is countered by the lack of enforceable actions. Expressly, many theories and frameworks proposed in favor of risk assessment in marine insurance are limited in the sense that they only assess risk rather than manage it (Mokhtari and Ren 2014).

Furthermore, researchers highlight that, to date, the implementation process for risk assessment in marine insurance has been relatively slow, which limits the application processes significantly. On the other hand, Eggers QC (2019) posits that one of the most saddening facts about risk assessment in marine insurance is that the issues and accidents occurring with trade vessels are incurred by aggressors rather than nature itself, highlighting that those accidents are primarily manmade. As such, the quest for risk assessment in marine insurance is a human activity that is fairly limited due to counteractivity on the part of humans. The consistent prevalence of illegal fishing activities is another major issue that limits the risk assessment activity of marine insurance. Pirates across sea routes may have evolved from their conventional forms and shapes (Eggers QC 2019). However, piracy still exists, and any outbound vessel that comes in the pirates’ path is likely to face disruption or be plundered, with the death of the crew as an imminent factor. The respective factors highlight how and why risk assessment in marine insurance is likely to be limited because of unprecedented factors that limit its applicability and operability.

The idea of risk management was initially associated with using marine insurance to protect people from extensive losses in ships, cargo, etc. (Heij and Knapp 2018). This research aims to conduct a bibliometric and systematic literature assessment through cluster analysis. In essence, the research will closely follow the literature from different authors in other countries, and through different journals, through a bibliometric assessment to understand the trends that form an essential part of the current marine world and risk assessment theory. The focal theme of the bibliometric assessment is to analyze the current trends in the industries of interest, identify prominent patterns, and identify the course of the future for the field. Albeit international trade practices are becoming advanced and safer each year, there are always chances of hazards, especially through the sea, when the weather is not predicted correctly. Marine insurance covers all or some parts of the damage costs. Any party involved in the trade agreement will not pay the cost of damage to the cargo or goods. Instead, the insurance company and provider will be liable to pay the damage cost (Gibbs and Browman 2015).

The study emphasizes the importance of substantiating review decisions with relevant rationales and references. The article presents a bibliometric analysis of literature on marine insurance published from 1864 to 2022. The authors utilized a systematic approach that involved mapping and visualizing the literature to identify the salient aspects of marine insurance research. They provide an in-depth analysis of the frameworks and methodologies utilized in previous studies, thereby contributing to the betterment of the situation. By substantiating their review decisions with relevant rationales and references, the authors offer transparency and credibility to their bibliometric review. This article justifies its review by utilizing an organized and systematic approach, which is essential to ensure the quality of the review process (Paul et al. 2021; Kraus et al. 2022).

Bibliometric analysis is a sophisticated research technique that employs quantitative measures to scrutinize and comprehend scientific literature. This method provides a comprehensive overview of the research scenario in a particular field, enabling researchers to detect trends, patterns, and interconnections in the publication and citation of scientific articles. The field of bibliometric analysis has seen recent advancements with the works of Donthu et al. (2021), Mukherjee et al. (2022), and Mishra et al. (2023), who have made important contributions to its development. It is also worth mentioning that bibliometric analysis is built upon seminal guides in the field, and its use can support the progression of both theory and practice within the field.

The applications of bibliometric analysis in the domain of Marine Insurance are numerous. Some of the notable applications include: identifying the most prominent authors and journals in a specific field, charting the structure of scientific knowledge by analyzing the associations between diverse fields and disciplines, evaluating the impact of research by determining the number of citations received by a specific article or author, monitoring the progression of research themes over time, and assessing the efficiency of research institutions, countries, and funding agencies.

In conclusion, bibliometric analysis delivers substantial information that fosters the growth of theory and practice in the field. By presenting a complete overview of the research scenario and aiding researchers to pinpoint the most impactful and vital works, it serves as a valuable tool for advancement in the field.

Methodology

The present study employs a bibliometric approach to map the research landscape of the marine insurance domain. To achieve this goal, a comprehensive search of the Scopus database was conducted, and a set of relevant articles was selected for analysis. The analysis involved two main methodologies: bibliometric visualization and systematic analysis. The bibliometric visualization was carried out using VOSviewer software, which enabled the identification and analysis of the co-citation patterns of the articles. The software generated a map of the articles and their citation relationships, which facilitated the identification of clusters of related research. The clusters were further analyzed using systematic analysis, which involved the examination of the abstracts and keywords of the articles in each cluster.

The integration of bibliometric and content analysis techniques offers a more comprehensive perspective on the subject under examination. The bibliometric analysis sheds light on the publication history and author network, while content analysis delves deeper into the content of the articles. By utilizing both methods, one can gain a deeper understanding of the progression of a particular field, prevalent trends, and areas in need of further research. This multi-method approach has been proven to provide valuable insights into the current state of the field and aid in the determination of future research directions, as demonstrated in prior studies (Kumar et al. 2022; She et al. 2022).

This paper aims to conduct a bibliometric review by considering quantitative and qualitative approaches to marine insurance as focal research. This study is the first attempt to identify the available patterns in this field and recommends directions for future research by enforcing laws related to marine insurance. This review includes all published documents on marine insurance in journals, books, conferences, book chapters, and article reviews. These documents are reviewed to examine the role of risk assessment in marine insurance. Scopus was chosen as the database where the search strings “Marine Insurance,” “Risk Assessment,” and “Cargo Insurance” will be run alongside certain other factors, such as the language limit of English. Figure 1 presents a flow chart summarizing the steps involved in this bibliometric study to analyze the topic (Nobanee 2020).

Fig. 1.

Flow chart of bibliometric analysis on marine insurance

The following research strings were used to extract related documents on marine insurance, cargo insurance, and risk assessment. The first research string generated 332 documents from 1864 to 2022. Further, the research string was refined using Scopus to generate more refined results. The string “(TITLE-ABS-KEY (“marine insurance” OR “cargo insurance” OR “risk assessment”) AND (LIMIT-TO (DOCTYPE, “ar”) OR LIMIT-TO (DOCTYPE, “cp”) OR LIMIT-TO (DOCTYPE, “ch”) OR LIMIT-TO (DOCTYPE, “re”) OR LIMIT-TO (DOCTYPE, “no”) OR LIMIT-TO (DOCTYPE, “le”)) AND (LIMIT-TO (LANGUAGE, “English”))” generated 293 documents. The refinement of the documents was based on the fact that the search was limited to several document types, such as journals, books, book series, trade journals, and conference proceedings (Nobanee 2021).

After extracting the papers from the Scopus database, VOSViewer was used to examine the clusters in terms of authors, journals, organizations, countries, and sources that have contributed to the field (Nobanee et al. 2021). In addition, content analysis is conducted to understand the trends and directions for future research in this field, and the results are included in "Results and discussions" section.

Results and discussions

Results and Discussions section of this study provides an overview of the findings derived from the application of VOSviewer in the field of marine insurance. In this section, we present tables and visualization maps that highlight the clusters extracted from VOSviewer, which will be further analyzed to gain a deeper understanding of the trends and research patterns in this domain. The purpose of this analysis is to provide insights into the current state of research in marine insurance, to inform future research and policy-making in this field. The following section outlines the key findings and implications of this study, which are based on the analysis of the clusters presented in this section.

Tend in the publication of documents on marine insurance

Figure 1 highlights the trend of publications on marine insurance between 1864 and 2021, compared with the annual number of shipwrecks. Data on the annual number of shipwrecks were manually collected from Wikipedia, which discloses the list of shipwrecks for each year (for instance, the list of shipwrecks in 18641) (Fig. 2).

Fig. 2.

Documents on marine insurance compared to the annual number of shipwrecks

Overall, the number of published documents is not correlated with the annual number of shipwrecks, except in 1983, 2005, 2009, 2012, 2013, 2016, and 2017, when the number of published documents was positively associated with the increase in shipwrecks in one or two years prior. In 1981–1982, the number of published documents on marine insurance was limited to a maximum of two, regardless of the annual number of shipwrecks. Compared to the 70 s, the significant increase in shipwrecks in 1981 has attracted the attention of researchers in the field of marine insurance, and the number of published documents exceeded three in the following six years and reached a maximum of nine in 1983. In 1988–2000, the number of documents declined, except in 1996 and 1997, when the number of documents reached six and five, respectively. This can be explained by the surge of shipwrecks in 1996. Starting in 2001, the number of published documents increased slightly, peaking at 11 in 2005. Following the increase in shipwrecks in 2007 and 2008, the number of published documents increased to 13 in 2009. Notably, as a result of the consecutive increase in shipwrecks in 2011 and 2012 as well as in 2015 and 2016, the subject gained more attention from researchers. Consequently, the number of paper documents reached 19, 24, 17, and 17 in 2012, 2013, 2016, and 2017, respectively.

Most cited documents

The identification and analysis of the most cited documents are an important step in understanding the landscape of research in a particular field. In this study, we have analyzed the most cited documents in the domain of interest, which has provided valuable insights into the seminal works that have shaped the direction of research in this field. By identifying the most cited documents, we can gain an understanding of the key concepts, theories, and methodologies that have been influential in shaping the research landscape. This information can be used to inform future research and policy-making and to guide the development of new approaches and methodologies in this field. Overall, the analysis of the most cited documents is an important tool for gaining a deeper understanding of the historical and intellectual foundations of research in a particular domain. This section presents an analysis of the most cited papers on marine insurance published in the Scopus database; the results are reported in Table 2.

Table 2.

Most cited documents

Rank	Document	Citations	Rank	Document	Citations
1	Østreng et al. (2013)	105	11	Bennett (2000)	16
2	Hassel et al. (2011)	91	12	Adland et al. (2021)	15
3	de Roover (1945)	64	13	Li et al. (2009)	15
4	Kingston (2007)	47	14	Ibbetson (2008)	13
5	Zhang and Lam (2017)	34	15	Cuenca-Esteban (2007)	13
6	Gallagher et al. (2005)	30	16	Crothers (2004)	13
7	Oldham (2007)	27	17	Lefkowitz et al. (2019)	12
8	Matsuo and Nakahara (2013)	25	18	Basu et al. (2017)	12
9	Larsson and Lindquist (1992)	20	19	Lorenc and Kuźnar (2018)	11
10	Miller et al. (2016)	19	20	Kingston (2011)	10

An analysis of influential authors was carried out by determining the influence of researchers through citations. As revealed in Table 2, Østreng et al.'s (2013) paper have the highest number of citations compared to many other articles published decades ago. The study, which was conducted on Arctic waters, is the most comprehensive analysis of various factors and conditions that affect the development of the shipping industry in the region. It covers multiple factors affecting the operations of the transportation industry, such as the availability of resources, the environment, and corporate governance. These factors and conditions include increasing competition and lock-in effects, changing environmental conditions, and geopolitical situations. Following Østreng et al. (2013), Hassel et al. (2011) have 91 citations, and de Roover (1945) has 64 citations, respectively. Figure 3 shows the associated visualization map of Table 1, which shows the prioritized assessment of the documents based on citations acquired since the publishing period.

Fig. 3.

Visualization map of most cited documents

Table 1.

Scopus query

Specifications	Conditions	No. of documents
Descriptions	“(TITLE-ABS-KEY (“marine insurance” OR “Risk assessment” OR “cargo insurance”)	332
Access	We included both open-access and non-open-access documents	332
Query search date	June 23rd, 2022
Year	1864–2022	332
Subject Area	We included marine insurance, risk assessment, cargo insurance	(332)
Document Type	We excluded notes, editorials, letters, short surveys, and conference reviews	(18)
Source Type	We included journals, books, book series, trade journals, and conference proceedings	(314)
Language	We have included only the English language	293
Final Result	Final number of documents	293

Figure 3 presents the primary findings for the most frequently referenced articles. To assess the impact and significance of articles based on their citations, we analyzed citations for influential authors and top-tier documents. According to Fig. 3, Kingston and Merkens have made the most significant contributions to the field. While the visualization map reveals some small clusters, indicating a degree of homogeneity in addressing the research topic of marine insurance. The key provided above clarifies the themes covered by the papers in each cluster on the chosen subject. In terms of citations, several studies are reported in Table 2, including de Roover (1945), Kingston (2007), Oldham (2007), Ibbetson (2008), Crothers (2004), and Lefkowitz et al. (2019)."

Distribution of documents by type

All documents from the Scopus database were distributed into the following types: articles, conference papers, book chapters, reviews, notes, and letters. The results are presented in Fig. 4.

Fig. 4.

Documents type

Figure 4 presents a pie chart distributing the documents into types and indicates that there is a dominance of journal papers in marine insurance research fields that represent 46% of the total documents, while 18% are conference papers, 13% are book chapters, 11% are reviews, and notes and letters are each 6%.

Most influential authors

The researchers have pinpointed the preeminent authors in the marine insurance domain, leveraging various bibliometric approaches to scrutinize their publications and impact on the field. The investigation has revealed a cohort of exceptionally influential writers who have made noteworthy strides in advancing the field. Their contributions persist to be referenced and applied by both scholars and practitioners. Table 3 presents these attributes, along with the number of published documents and citations. For a meaningful citation authors’ analysis, the threshold was set to a minimum of two papers and five citations per author. This yielded 19 of 387 authors.

Table 3.

Most influential authors

Rank	Author	Documents	Citations	Rank	Author	Documents	Citations
1	Soyer B	6	26	11	Gauci G	2	7
2	Merkin R	5	11	12	Liu J	2	6
3	Kremer M	4	54	13	Llorca-Jaña M	2	12
4	Hustad E	4	15	14	Lorenc A	2	13
5	Go S.C.P.J	3	5	15	Pearson R	2	11
6	Gürses Ö	3	12	16	Puttevils J	2	11
7	Kingston C	3	66	17	Schoenbaum T.J	2	10
8	Leloudas G	3	20	18	Skorna A.C.H	2	6
8	Leonard A.B	3	12	19	Wang Y	2	15
10	Fleisch E	2	6

Table 3 indicates that Soyer B. published the highest number of documents (6) on marine insurance, while Kingston C. has the highest number of citations (66) with fewer published papers (3). Kreme M. was the second most cited author, with four papers and 54 citations. The remaining authors had fewer than 30 citations. Figure 4 shows the associated visualization map of Table 3, which exhibits the prioritized assessment of the authors based on citations acquired since the publication of their documents.

Figure 5 confirms Table 3 and shows Kingston C. in the middle of the map due to the highest number of citations and significant contribution to the marine insurance research field with the publications of three papers (Kingston 2007, 2011, 2014). Kingston (2007) analyzed various factors that affected the development of the marine insurance industry in America and Britain from 1720 to 1814. It focuses on the multiple agency problems and information asymmetry issues encountered during the early stages of international trade technology. Accordingly, the multiple equilibria that the market experienced during that period were due to the potential lemons problem. The combination of external shocks and internal development caused a bifurcation in the institutional structure, which continues to affect the market today. Kingston (2011) analyzed the organizational forms used during the development of the marine insurance industry and examined the effects of the Quasi-War between the USA and France during 1795–1801. This study revealed that the powerful external shock that occurred during the late 1790s significantly increased the risks faced by American merchant shipping. Kingston (2014) studied various governance structures that emerged during the development of the marine insurance industry between 1350 and 1850. These structures were established as a result of the spread of insurance from medieval Italy to other regions by considering informal mechanisms such as market governance in the development of insurance law.

Fig. 5.

Visualization map of most influential authors

Most influential countries

Marine insurance is a critical component of global trade, ensuring the safety of goods and vessels as they move across the world's oceans. As a result, the countries that are most influential in the marine insurance industry have a significant impact on international commerce. Table 4 presents the numbers of documents and citations by country. The UK contributes the most to marine insurance publications, with 61 papers, followed by the USA, which has the highest number of citations (50 papers), then China and Norway (16 papers). Considering these three countries together, they accounted for almost 38.64% of the total publications. The research concentration in this field suggests that marine insurance research is mainly conducted in a few countries. Canada, Australia, Sweden, and Denmark are emerging in marine insurance research in terms of the number of papers and citations.

Table 4.

Most influential countries

Rank	Country	Documents	Citations	Rank	Country	Documents	Citations
1	UK	61	124	11	Netherlands	5	9
2	USA	50	446	12	Switzerland	5	8
3	China	16	33	13	Germany	4	6
4	Norway	16	240	14	Japan	4	27
5	Canada	8	36	15	Turkey	4	5
6	Australia	7	4	16	Denmark	3	105
7	Sweden	7	38	17	India	3	17
8	Greece	6	8	18	Latvia	3	2
9	Finland	5	1	19	Russian Federation	3	1
10	Malaysia	5	6	20	Taiwan	3	9

Figure 6 shows the contribution of each country to marine insurance. This confirms the results reported in Table 4 and shows that the USA and the UK contribute the most to research on marine insurance.

Fig. 6.

Most influential countries visualization map

Most influential organizations

The marine insurance industry is a complex and specialized field, with many organizations playing important roles in ensuring the safety and security of goods and vessels as they move across the world's oceans. Here are some of the most influential organizations in the field of marine insurance. The numbers of documents and citations by organization are presented in Table 5. The University of Copenhagen in Denmark, Det Norske Veritas in Norway, and the University of Alaska Fairbanks in the US have the highest citations. In addition, Table 5 reveals that three universities in the most influential organizations section are located in the US (University of Alaska Fairbanks, Oberlin College, and Amherst College). Notably, universities in Japan (the University of Tokyo and Kobe University) are emerging in this field of research.

Table 5.

Most influential Organizations

Rank	Organization	Documents	Citations
1	University of Copenhagen, Denmark	1	105
2	Det Norske Veritas, Høvik, Norway	1	105
3	University of Alaska Fairbanks, Ocean Futures, Oslo, USA	1	105
4	Norwegian University of Science And Technology, Department of Marine Technology, Trondheim, Norway	1	91
5	Oberlin College, Ohio, USA	1	64
6	Department of Economics, Amherst College, Amherst, USA	1	47
7	School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore	1	34
8	Economics Dept., Iowa State University, Ames, USA	1	30
9	Center for Research and Development of Higher Education, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan	1	25
10	Graduate School of Business Administration, Kobe University, Kobe, Japan	1	25

Figure 6 shows the organizations contributing the most to the marine insurance field. It reveals that US universities have contributed the most in this field. Nevertheless, this figure manifests a need for further research developments in this field in the remaining universities (Fig. 7).

Fig. 7.

Most influential organizations visualization map

Most frequent keyword

Figure 8 presents the co-occurrence of keywords used in documents on marine insurance. Although the central themes of our analysis were marine insurance and risk assessment, the results showed that “insurance history” appeared to be among the most common keywords with high occurrence. This indicates that the insurance history has attracted researchers’ attention when studying marine insurance. Figure 8 identifies three main clusters: (1) risk assessment (red), (2) marine insurance (blue), and (3) insurance industry (green).

Fig. 8.

Keywords co-occurrence map

Table 6 provides more detailed information about each cluster. Risk assessment clusters include studies on risk prevention (Hassel et al. 2011), cargo insurance (Dunt 2013b, 2013a; Bull and Wilhelmsen 2013), insurance contracts (Song 2014), insurance costs (Ul Din et al. 2013), freight transportation (Morra 1988), marine engineering (Praetorius et al. 2020), marketing in marine risk (Puttevils and Deloof 2017), and shipbuilding (Kverndal 2016; Stuart 2005). The marine insurance cluster includes studies on commerce (Downs 2004; Noussia 2008), economics (Hohman 1926; Leonard 2012), insurance premiums (Beenstock and Khajuria 1986), laws and legislation (Anon 1996; Merkin 2013), maritime transport (Peter 2020; Zhang and Lam 2017), risk management (Turnbull and Haddud 2018), and ships (Djurhuus 2021; Oldham 2007). In the insurance industry cluster, studies focus on maritime accidents (Hassel et al. 2011), humans (Yang and Li 2019), insurance businesses (Santoso et al. 2021; Zulfiqar et al. 2020), insurance companies (Goulielmos et al. 2002; Skorna et al. 2010), insurance systems (Han and Jiang 2019; Santoso et al. 2021), shipping (Wilhelmsen 2009), the UK (Pearson 2012), and the USA (Farber 2020; Huebner 1905).

Table 6.

Clusters and keywords

No.	Cluster	Number of keywords	Keywords
1	Risk Assessment	8	Accident prevention, cargo insurance, contract, costs, freight transportation, marine engineering, marketing, shipbuilding
2	Marine insurance	8	Commerce, economics, insurance premiums, laws, legislation, maritime transport, risk management, ships
3	Insurance industry	8	Accidents, human, insurance business, insurance companies, insurance system, shipping, UK, USA

Each color in the figure represents a distinct cluster based on the analysis. The blue cluster relates to marine insurance, the red cluster pertains to the insurance industry in general, and the green cluster specifically focuses on insurance companies. By including this note, readers can better understand the key takeaways from the figure and easily interpret the data. The clusters provide valuable insights into the main areas of focus for the company.

Content analysis

In addition to bibliometric analyses, a content analysis of the titles and abstracts of papers on risk insurance topics published in the Scopus database was conducted using Wordstat. Table 7 presents the results.

Table 7.

Content analysis of marine insurance topics

No.	Topic	Keywords	Coherence (NPMI)	FREQ	Cases	% Cases
1	Insurance Law	Law; Book; Clauses; Institute; Reform; Faith; Fraudulent; Edition; Principles; Duty; Act; Including; Detail; Legal; Insurance; Brokers; English; Good; Practitioners; Contract; Academics; Regulation; Matter; Marine; Interest; Jurisdiction; Contracts; Francis; Standard; Underlying; Light; Worldwide; Assured; Examines; Recent; Rules; Issues; Marine Insurance; Insurance Law; Insurance Act; Insurance Contract; Marine Insurance Law; English Law; Contract Law; Marine Insurance Act; Insurance Contracts; Institute Cargo Clauses; Case Law	0.524	592	186	59.42%
2	Logistics Service	Modelling; Delivery; Logistics; Assessment; Costs; Service; Paid; Accidents; Evaluation; Premium; Taking; Process; Number; Account; Main; Essential; Cargo; Article; Model; Analysis; Risks; Cargo Insurance; Logistics Service; Assessment Of Latvian Road Safety; Insurance Premium; Cargo Insurance Premium	0.539	160	87	27.80%
3	Government	Federal; War; Government; Piracy; Able; Ensure; Commerce; Private; Markets; Covered; Insurer; Losses; Act; Transportation; Ocean; Statute; Risks; Title; Financial; Merchant; Addition; Authorizes The Federal Government; War Risks; War Risk	0.554	135	66	21.09%
4	Black Sea Region	Black; Detention; Region; Port; Sea; Published; Frequency; Probability; Called; Ship; Understanding; State; Control; After; Approach; Methodology; Black Sea Region	0.507	79	26	8.31%

The results shown in Table 7 indicate that the most common research topics of documents on marine insurance published in the Scopus database are insurance law, logistics service, government, and the black sea region. The first topic of insurance law includes studies on insurance contracts (Bennett 2019; Heiss 2012; Song 2014), insurance laws (Rose 2012; Thomas 2016), and insurance clauses (Passman 2009; Petrinović and Lovrić, 2012). The topic of logistics services includes logistics modeling (Jansons et al. 2015; Jurenoks et al. 2013b), insurance premiums (Beenstock and Khajuria 1986; Zhang and Sun 2019), and logistics costs (Jurenoks et al. 2013a). The government topic includes studies on its involvement in marine insurance (Goldman 2015; Goldman and Goldman 2010). The topic of the Black Sea region consists of studies that examine marine insurance in Russia (Novikova et al. 2022; Petrov 2012; Turitsyn 2019).

In addition to content analysis, this section reviews the most recently published documents on marine insurance to determine the latest research trends in this field. These papers were categorized into three bibliometric clusters determined by bibliometric analysis: (1) risk assessment, (2) marine insurance, and (3) insurance industry. This systematic approach examines each paper in depth and filters research papers to determine future gaps (Table 8).

Table 8.

Content analysis

Stream	Author	Purpose	Findings	Suggestions for future research
Risk assessment	Afenyo et al. (2022)	The paper explores the effects of an oil spill on the communities in the Canadian Arctic. It uses a multi-period model to analyze the effects of the spill on the environment and society and the Bayesian Network to study the likelihood of the disaster	The development of the Arctic maritime industry is affected by the conflict of interests between different stakeholders. Some stakeholders are advocating for the establishment of more ship activity in the region in order to generate economic benefits, while others are advocating for the protection of the environment	What are various factors that have affected the development of the oil spill response in other regions with similar infrastructure problems?
Marine insurance	Cueva Clemente et al., (2022)	This study analyzes the effects of cargo insurance policies on the international maritime transport industry by applying a bibliometric review of various research articles published in different countries from 2016 to 2021	This study identified the potential impact of these policies on the industry, such as cargo risk prevention, mitigation of economic effects, and better risk coverage for importers and exporters	What are the other various factors that have affected the oil spill situation in the Arctic? How can the cargo loss be prevented to not lose money due to the delays in the import and export process?
Marine insurance	Novikova et al. (2022)	The study focuses on various legislative acts that govern the operations of the insurance industry in Russia and explores the reasons behind the multiple imperfections of the legislation	This study states that in order to safeguard various national projects, such as the Northern Sea Route navigation, and due to the vessel risks in Arctic waters, it is important that the issued policies are thoroughly reviewed and verified	What would be the impact of the state involvement in regulation on the insurance business?
Marine insurance	Adland et al. (2021)	The objective of the paper is to investigate if the predictions of marine incidents can be improved for marine insurance claims for the vessels' voyage using an Automated Identification System	To evaluate marine risks, the researchers developed a modeling framework incorporating meteorological features, such as high-frequency ship tracking and weather data. These features are suggested for predicting marine insurance claims to cover risks arising from complex vessel and weather variable interactions	What would be the results of using bigger geographic sample size and other sources of marine incident data?
Risk assessment	Lorenc and Kuźnar, (2021)	The article focuses on the intermodal transport industry, estimates the most common types of disruptions in the supply chain, including cargo theft, and identifies its likelihood	The method developed in this study was able to estimate various types of disruptions in the supply chain and their associated costs and provide a comprehensive response to these issues in order to minimize the losses and improve the efficiency of the operations. The same model can also be used to support the decision-making process regarding the use of cargo insurance policies for high-risk transportation cases	The software developed in this study can help researchers to conduct sensitivity analysis to investigate the impact of the input parameters on the variance in the output probability
Risk Assessment	Go (2021)	This paper explores various aspects of cargo insurance and how it has remained an integral part of the risk management process	The paper states that despite the technological advancements in the insurance industry, the General Average method remains an important part of the solution	What are various factors that affect the trade patterns and the efficiency of the markets? What are the legal differences between different countries and port cities?
Marine Insurance	Merkin (2021)	The book aims to analyze various aspects of the marine insurance Act as well as its successful implementation	The book presented the historical precedents that have been used in the development of marine insurance law	What will be the impact of the development of the Act on marine insurance?
Insurance industry	Santoso et al. (2021)	The aim of this study is to identify the most effective and profitable insurance models for the marine cargo business and analyze this industry's marketing and underwriting processes by conducting a literature review	This study identifies the problems of marine insurance related to various aspects of the underwriting process as well as the product information services offered by the insurance firms	The study proposes a framework that combines various technological features of the insurance industry to help companies improve their marketing and underwriting processes as well as develop effective and efficient customer service
Marine insurance	Djurhuus (2021)	The objective of this study is to collect information about the incidents and intoxications that have occurred onboard bulk cargo ships due to the use of pesticides	The results of this study revealed that the use of pesticides on bulk cargo ships poses a serious health risk to port workers and seafarers	This study recommends the implementation of preventive actions to reduce intoxication risks and enhance safety measures
Marine industry	Liao et al. (2021)	The paper aims to analyze the relationship between various value-added industries and ports in a maritime cluster and explore the role of the port in the development of the cluster	The findings indicated that during the non-decline period of the cluster, the ports were able to attract resources to promote the maritime insurance and shipping industries. However, during the decline period, the port development led to increasing competition and lock-in effects, which severely affected the relationships between the multiple industries	What will be the impact of inter-industry cooperation strengthening, market openness increasing, and supportive policies granting on the maritime cluster decline?
Marine insurance	Mitkov et al. (2021)	This study aims to analyze the conditions of transported goods by sea between 2010 and 2019 in Bulgaria	The paper concludes that a strong link between maritime transport and the insurance of transported goods and cargo leads to a stronger insurance market as a whole by increasing the country's gross domestic product	Will the pace of development of marine insurance overtake the increasing pace of development of freight insurance in the future, thus increasing the country's gross domestic product?
Risk assessment	Progoulakis et al. (2021)	The current study explores the cyber-physical concepts (information technology, operational technology, and human element interface) of cyber security for both onshore and offshore maritime assets	The research finds that the maritime sector lacks interoperability and threats to operational technology systems and components. It also finds that several available industry and government directives and standards do not adequately provide solutions for the maritime industry. If they do, they are just perspectives or performance-based. The findings also show a lack of cyber security knowledge for maritime vessel operators and shipping company personnel	What are the weaknesses of cyber-physical security in the system architecture used in the maritime industry?

Conclusion

This study analyzes published documents on marine insurance topics published in the Scopus database, identifies current ideas and concepts related to this field, and provides recommendations for future research. The most influential authors, along with organizations and countries, were identified by applying several bibliometric and content analyses. In addition, this study identifies three main clusters: (1) risk assessment, (2) marine insurance, and (3) the insurance industry.

This study has theoretical and practical implications. First, it provides an overview of the evolution of marine insurance research over time and identifies the most relevant topics. Second, it helps researchers gain an idea about previous and current research topics in this field, as well as the most cited documents. Third, based on this study's findings, marine insurance researchers can identify areas of future research on which they should focus. For instance, they can analyze various issues that emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic to improve the marine insurance industry. However, this direction of future research remains unexplored. In addition, future studies may analyze the dynamics of marine insurance over time and the benefits of implementing the latest technologies in the development of marine insurance.

The current study provides valuable insights into the research landscape of marine insurance. However, the study suggests that further research in the areas of artificial intelligence and machine learning, sustainable financing, and ESG reporting could deepen our understanding of the field and provide useful recommendations for marine insurance practitioners and policymakers. These areas could help inform underwriting and pricing decisions, drive the transition to a low-carbon economy, and improve reporting and accountability mechanisms. Future research in these areas could provide valuable insights into the potential applications and benefits of emerging technologies and sustainable practices in marine insurance, and help create a more sustainable and resilient future for the sector.

This study also highlights the importance of marine insurance in addressing maritime transportation risks. This field has been acknowledged as an important research topic for exploring various factors affecting this industry. This study has a few notable limitations. First, it included only documents published in the Scopus database, while other databases, such as the Web of Sciences, were explored. Second, future studies should conduct more bibliometric reviews, such as cocitation analyses. Third, other software, such as CiteSpace, could also be used to visualize various topics that have emerged in the literature on marine insurance. Despite these limitations, this study provides an updated analysis of the marine insurance research field.

Biographies

Nejla Ould Daoud Ellili

is currently an Associate Professor of Finance at Abu Dhabi University, United Arab Emirates. She received her Ph.D. degree in Finance from Institut Supérieur de Gestion, Tunis, Tunisia. Her research and teaching activities have been in the areas of corporate finance, corporate governance, corporate disclosure, and sustainability. Her works have been published in Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Corporate Governance: The International Journal of Business in Society, Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, Review of Managerial Science, International Review of Economics and Finance, and Journal of Sustainable Finance and Investment, among others.

Haitham Nobanee

is a professor of finance working at Abu Dhabi University, UAE. An honorary professor at the University of Liverpool, U.K., and a visiting research professor at the University of Oxford, U.K. He received his doctorate from the University of Manchester. He is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA), a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), and a Fellow of the Learning and Performance Institute (LPI). His work has been published in the International Review of Economics and Finance, North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Renewable & Sustainable Energy Reviews, Big Data, and Corporate Governance, among other outlets, he has also been published in professional journals such as Harvard Business Review. He is also serving the academic community as an editor (Arab Gulf Journal of Scientific Research-Emerald), associate editor (International Review of Financial Analysis- Elsevier), guest editor (International Review of Economic & Finance- Elsevier), member of the editorial board ( Financial Innovation- Springer) and reviewer of various international refereed journals.

Ahmad Yousef Alodat

currently serving as a Postdoctoral Researcher at Universiti Malaysia Terengganu. and Research Consultant at Abu Dhabi University. His research interests include corporate governance, sustainability reporting, and financial reporting.

Mehroz Nida Dilshad

is a researcher and scholar in the field of finance. She has published several research papers on topics such as operational risk, profitability analysis of mergers and acquisitions, big data applications in the banking sector, and collaborative learning environment. Dilshad is affiliated with International Business University, Canada, and the University of Liverpool, UK she has collaborated with researchers from other universities on her research projects.

Sabiha Nuzhat

is a lecturer at Curtin University in Dubai, UAE. She works in the field of IT and computer systems and has expertise in areas such as pervasive computing, context awareness, education policies, and education in the UAE. She is also known for being a skilled academic

Author contributions

All authors have contributed equally; NE took part in conceptualization, data curation, formal analysis, funding acquisition, investigation, methodology, resources, software, supervision, validation, visualization, roles/writing—original draft, writing—review and editing. HN involved in conceptualization, data curation, formal analysis, funding acquisition, investigation, methodology, project administration, resources, software, supervision, validation, visualization, writing—review and editing; AA took part in data curation, formal analysis, investigation, methodology, writing—review and editing; MND involved in conceptualization, data curation, methodology, resources, software, supervision, validation, visualization, writing—review and editing; SN involved in conceptualization, data curation, methodology, resources, software, supervision, validation, visualization, writing—review and editing.

Funding

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the authors.

Declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.