The influence of conflict and intuition on explorative new products and performance in SMEs

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of conflict and intuition on explorative new products and performance in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Design/methodology/approach: The study proposes a theoretical model that was tested using two survey instruments: one instrument was administered to the owners of 150 SMEs within the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the second was administered to senior managers within the same SMEs. Findings: The results show that within the decision-making process both objective and personal conflicts drive decision makers to the use of intuition, with high levels of market turbulence strengthening the effect of objective conflict on the use of intuition. Furthermore, the use of intuition was found to have an adverse effect on explorative new products, negating the positive effectiveness of explorative new products on SME performance. Research limitations/implications: The study’s conceptual model may not completely represent the perspective it aims to elucidate. An alternative model with equally well-conceived explanatory variables could provide further interesting results. Practical implications: Drawing on the perspective of the decision-making process, an interpretation of the model results and some practical implications are discussed. Originality/value: The primary contribution of this study is the introduction of a model investigating the influence of conflict on the use of intuition in strategic decisions. Furthermore, the study collected empirical evidence from SMEs operating in the dynamic economy of the UAE, which is a less studied setting.