Design/methodology/approach: The paper presents an exemplar case of an Indian insurance company by using a qualitative case research approach.
Findings: Our findings reveal the use of a tool 'Fraud-O-Meter' whose main features are trigger analysis, investigator management, and dashboard reporting of frauds to senior management. The case study highlights several challenges of implementing the tool in the company, and how the company overcame those challenges.
Originality: Most papers on red flags and data mining in fraud control concentrate on the technical aspects. Our research adds to the literature by examining the organizational challenges in developing and implementing a tool to control frauds.
Practical Implications: The organizational lessons from the company’s experience, namely about justifying the investment to the top management and securing the cooperation of other units to use the tool, should be generalizable beyond the insurance industry. Also, the tool is cost-effective and involves relatively simpler data mining techniques that others can easily follow.
Sanjay Kallapur is a Professor of Accounting at the Indian School of Business (ISB). He joined ISB in 2005 from the Krannert School of Management, Purdue University, where he was a tenured Associate Professor.
Professor Kallapur conducts research on financial and managerial accounting, auditing, corporate governance, and risk management. He has published in each of the top three accounting journals, and his papers have been cited over 4,000 times (Google Scholar) and in regulatory policy documents in India and the UK. The American Accounting Association recently published his monograph on scientific inference in accounting research, beyond the use of p-values.
He is the founding Editor-in-Chief of Accounting Theory and Practice, a research journal focusing on India, published by Elsevier. He has been an editor of The Accounting Review from 2008 to 2011, the first person from outside North America to be appointed to that position.
Professor Kallapur is a member of National Financial Reporting Authority (NFRA), the regulatory body overseeing the accounting and auditing of listed companies in India. He is an independent director on the Board of IDBI Bank, where he serves on the risk management and audit committees. He previously served on the Board of the Life Insurance Corporation of India.
Professor Kallapur has held positions as Associate Dean and Deputy Dean for almost a decade at ISB. He started the PhD-equivalent Fellow Programme in Management at ISB and has placed his students in faculty positions at the London School of Economics, IESEG Paris, Aalto University, University of Queensland, University of Western Australia, and IIM Udaipur.
Professor Kallapur has a PhD in Business Economics from Harvard Business School, and B.Com. and M.M.S. degrees from Mumbai University. He is professionally qualified as a Fellow Member of the Institute of Cost Accountants of India (FCMA).
