Intuition : En studie av beslutsfattande i mindre svenska företag

• Main Authors: Granlund, Marie, Mårtensson, Sofia
• Format: Others
• Language: Swedish
• Published: Örebro universitet, Handelshögskolan vid Örebro universitet 2011
• Subjects: intuition; analysis; decision making; decision attributes; cognitive style; small enterprises; analys; beslutsfattande; beslutsattribut; kognitiv stil; mindre företag; Business studies; Företagsekonomi
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:oru:diva-14407

Background: Previous studies have shown that intuition occurs in decision making in small enterprises. However, these studies have not illuminated which decision attributes leads to intuitive decision making. Purpose: The purpose with this study is to contribute with an increased understanding of which decision attributes leads managers in small enterprises to use intuition in decision making and why these decisions attributes have an impact on the role of intuition. The follow-ing research question will be answered in our study: Which decision attributes leads to intui-tive decision making in small enterprises, and why? Method: To answer the research question we have conducted semi structural interviews with managers in small enterprises to achieve a deeper understanding of the role of intuition. We have also used a method called Visual Card Sorting as a complement to the semi structural interviews. Result/conclusion: The result of our study indicates that the relevance and the uncertainty of a decision have the greatest significance in the use of intuition in decision making in small enterprises. A possible explanation for an increased use of intuition in decisions with less relevance is that the decision maker does not need to legitimize these decisions to others. Our results regarding the uncertain decisions are however two folded. Managers partly believe that uncertain decisions needs to be balanced by an analysis to reduce the uncertainty, but some managers also believe that when making uncertain decisions they do not have any other choice, than to rely on their intuition. We have also found some support for the theory of task cuing, since intuition-like attributes, such as subjective and imprecise information, seems to induce managers to use intuition, while analysis-like attributes, such as objective and precise information, seems to induce analysis. Our result however, indicates that the relevance of a decision has a slightly greater impact on intuitive decision making, than the theory of task cuing has.