Putting the use of intuition for fuzzy front end decision making on the research agenda

Decision making literature suggests that intuitive decision making is more appropriate than the established rational decision making approaches to handle the specific information processing needs of the fuzzy front end (FFE) of new product development. However, these earlier studies cannot be applied to FFE decision making due to inconsistencies regarding the conceptualization of intuition and the decision situations in which they were conducted. Therefore, this paper highlights the urgent need for future research on the use of intuition for decision making in the FFE of NPD by (i) identifying the benefits of intuitive decision making in the FFE and by (ii) specifying an agenda for further research on this topic. Based on the commonalities of earlier conceptualizations of intuition, the advantages of intuitive decision making are identified and linked to the specific information processing needs that FFE decision making requires. Seeing the match between the advantages of intuition and the challenges of FFE decision making, future empirical research is urgently needed to investigate when and how the advantages of intuition can be used effectively in FFE decision making.