The dynamics of expert and team intuition in NPD projects: The role of environmental turbulence and expert power

Abstract

This paper empirically examines the roles that an expert intuition, an expert power, and a team intuition play when applied to a particular task in the NPD team context. The objectives are achieved in two phases. In the first phase, the antecedents of expert intuition and team likeliness to accept expert intuition were tested. The moderating role that environmental turbulence plays was also measured. In the second phase, we measured the impact that an expert intuition and team likeliness to accept expert intuition had on an NPD team intuition. The moderating role that an expert power plays was also measured. A comprehensive literature review was conducted to develop the hypothesis and conceptual framework. Data was collected from 325 respondents of 116 software houses in Pakistan. Structured equation modeling (SEM) was used for data analysis. The findings revealed that task uncertainty had a positive and significant impact on expert intuition and team likeliness to accept expert intuition. Environmental turbulence also played a significant moderating role except in the case of task creativity and the team likeliness to accept expert intuition. There was also a positive impact from expert intuition and team likeliness to accept expert intuition on team intuition. The moderating role of expert power was also significant. This study adds value to the existing literature on expert intuition, team intuition and expert power especially in the NPD context. The relationship between intuition at the individual and team levels is established and the results revealed the impact of task uncertainty and expert power on the relationship.