11-06-01
NEW BOOK EXPLORES ENTREPRENEURSHIP
AND INNOVATION IN THE AUTO INSURANCE INDUSTRY
Samuel P. Black Jr., a retired executive and
director emeritus of the Erie Insurance Group, and John Paul Rossi,
Ph.D., associate professor of history at Penn State Erie, The Behrend
College, have collaborated to write a book that examines the parallel
rise of the automobile and the automobile insurance industry
Titled Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Automobile Insurance:
Samuel P. Black Jr., and the Rise of Erie Insurance, 1923-1961, the
book is part of the Studies in Entrepreneurship Series published by
Routledge.
"Entrepreneurs play a central role in economic growth and development,
but how they do so is the subject of considerable debate," Rossi said.
"This book explains the process through an historical case study of an
extraordinary automobile insurance entrepreneur, Samuel P. Black Jr.,
and Erie Insurance Group, the company he helped build."
One of the book's central themes is the automobile's dramatic impact
on modern America. Its takeover of mass transportation provided the
basis for the development of the automobile insurance industry and
created many of the opportunities which Black and Erie Insurance
capitalized on.
A second theme is the role of innovation in the entrepreneurial process.
The rise of Erie Insurance from a four-person enterprise in Erie,
Pennsylvania, in 1925 to one of the fifteen-largest auto insurers today
was the result, in part, of Black's relentless push to innovate. His
continual efforts to cut costs, develop new products, satisfy customers,
increase sales, and improve operations all contributed greatly to
the company's growth..
These themes combine in the book to demonstrate the dynamic process by
which the cultural, social, economic, and technologic environment
creates opportunities for entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial firms, and
how responding to those opportunities stimulates economic development.
Samuel P. Black Jr., joined Erie Insurance in 1927. He was the
company's first claims manager and has been continuously associated
with the company for more than seventy years as an agent, an officer,
and a member of the board of directors. Black is credited for developing
round-the-clock claims service and was recognized as a scholar in
insurance law. In 1962, at the age of 60, Black founded his own agency,
Samuel P. Black and Associates, Inc., which is managed now by his son,
Samuel P. "Pat" Black III.
The book is available in Erie bookstores and from the publisher.
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Contact: Loretta Brandon
(814) 898-6063 (O)
(814) 864-9922 (H)
e-mail: lzb6@psu.edu