The eye of the beholder: The influence of intuition, rationality, and leeway on the assessment of an Idea's market-creation potential

Abstract Paradoxically, mature firms facing competition in mature markets attempt to enter new markets, yet often pursue incremental ideas in their new product development process (NPD), abandoning ideas with market-creating potential in the idea evaluation phase at the fuzzy front end of NPD. We assume that idea evaluators' information-processing style (rational or intuitive) plays a dominant role in this context. Previous research has shown that the holistic information-processing style of intuitive individuals helps them with tasks that involve generating creative ideas, and we expect it to also be beneficial during idea evaluation for sensing an idea's potential to create new markets. In addition, we predict that the systematic procedure to be followed in formalized NPD idea evaluation will stifle this ability. Drawing on data from 138 corporate idea evaluators, we show that evaluators with an intuitive cognitive style are more likely to emphasize new market creation than those with a rational style, and that leeway serves as a moderator. By linking information-processing style and leeway we provide a potential explanation for why highly formalized organizations find it difficult to develop innovations with a high market-creation potential, and we discuss the practical implications of this.