Intuitive managerial thinking; the use of mental simulations in the industrial marketing context

a r t i c l e i n f o In this paper, we introduce empirical evidence showing how mental simulation was used as a heuristic strategy in an industrial network context. The mental network simulations observed are consistent with the Recognition-Primed Decision (RPD) model, according to which intuitive thinking allows managerial experience to be translated into focal network action, without resorting to a " rational " or comparative decision strategy. We identify the main business significance of mental network simulations in terms of their utility to clarify ambiguous or only partially known focal network situations, to develop coherent focal net plans and tactics, and to mentally preview how specific focal net tactics/strategies are likely to play out in reality. In short, mental network simulations were observed as being useful in generating focal net action through cognitively meeting the complex environmental challenges in dynamic focal net interaction between companies. The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honours the servant and has forgotten the gift. — Albert Einstein The deployment of cognitive strategies clearly has a profound influence on business outcomes, although being conditioned by social, organisational, inter-organisational, and other factors. Yet, in terms of themes that have been addressed in management research, managerial cognition has been the poor relation. One of the main reasons for this neglect is that knowledge structures and cognitive processes underpinning managerial judgment are notoriously difficult to research. Nowhere in social science is it clearer that the consciousness of the subject provides both insights and barriers to understanding (Runkel & McGrath, 1972). The relative lack of progress in this field of cognition is also related to much of the research being laboratory based (Löwstedt, 1993), which largely excludes the investigation of domain specific expertise and suggests limited application to actual decision making in organisations (e. has been a tendency for cognitive research to focus on the heuristic flaws of intuitive thinking, as opposed to the intuitions of experts (Klein, 2004; Dane & Pratt, 2007). However, in recent research on expert decision making, models have been developed explaining how intuitive cognitive structures can allow for recognition-primed response to match complex envi-In this stream of research, mental simulation has been identified as a central cognitive mechanism that facilitates the translation of managerial experience experienced decision makers have been conjectured to form decisions through …