Use of factor analysis to identify the main financial performance assessment indicators: an application in insurance companies

Abstract

Financial indicators have been used for a long time to assess organizational performance. Usually, these indicators are used to compare companies or even units of the same company. However, these indicators tend to be analyzed individually and sequentially. In other words, analyses are based on comparisons of liquidity ratios for example, with a view to finding the best companies on the basis of a mean liquidity standard, followed by a new analysis for profitability ratios etc. That type of sequential and individualized assessment does not permit the evaluation of some indicators' influence on others, besides depending on subjective criteria to evaluate which are the most relevant indicators. This study intends to propose a methodology that: (1) reduces the subjectivity degree in the choice of the indicators to be used for company assessment and (2) allows for a simultaneous analysis of the behavior of several indicators. In this research, we used one multivariate data analysis technique: Factor Analysis (FA), to create the financial indicator selection criteria.