The underwriting process is of prime importance to any insurer as it represents the starting point of the legal and financial relationship between an insurer and a particular proposer. This research focuses on the perceptions of the leading short-term insurers in South Africa concerning the underwriting process of motor vehicle insurance. The importance of the various underwriting factors is assessed in order to enable insurers to concentrate on a few most important ones. The specific problem areas of the underwriting process are thereafter highlighted, and possible solutions are discussed. In the last instance, the most frequently used stipulations to adjust insurance policies to take the underwriting factors into account and to alleviate underwriting problems receive due attention

There are many financial considerations which enterprises should take into account when they are contemplating the possibility to make capital investments abroad. The long-term nature of capital investments emphasizes the importance of the financial decisions as enterprises are often not in a position to opt out easily. This research paper focuses on the financial considerations only and other considerations, such as political, economic and technological matters do not receive any attention. The objective of this research focuses on the improvement of financial decision-making when enterprises are contemplating capital investments abroad. This objective is achieved by paying attention to the impact of following aspects: taxation, inflation rates, foreign exchange rates, interest rates, the capital structure and the cost of capital, capital and labour intensity, labour productivity, as well as the cash flow, liquidity, solvency and profitability considerations. An empirical study which has 29 top companies in South Africa as the respondents provided detailed information concerning capital investments made abroad. As South Africa is a developing country with an emerging market economy, the empirical results should be valuable to enterprises in other countries with emerging market economies.