Forms and use of collective intuition in strategic decision-making processes of South African fintechs

Abstract

Strategic decision-making is one of the core responsibilities of the senior executives in any firm, as these decisions impact firm profitability and survivability. The use of intuition by executive managers has been acknowledged in the literature as an important decision-making approach. Until recently though, little was known about team-level intuitions, and even less is known about the strategic decision-making processes in FinTech firms. This research sought to develop a deeper understanding of collective intuitions and the strategic decision-making processes in FinTechs firms. This study also sought to contribute to the nascent literature on collective intuition, by testing the validity of a recently proposed collective intuition framework. The research was conceptualised as a qualitative study with an exploratory design. Fourteen semi-structured interviews were conducted with executives tasked with of 5 South African FinTech firms. Findings highlight the high reliance that FinTech top managers place on their collective intuitions during strategic decision-making. A secondary finding is that the collective intuition framework has been shown to have both predictive and explanatory power, which contributes to the current theoretical work in this area. Finally, the insights of this study have led to a CEO-integrated collective intuition framework being proposed, with management recommendations, and impetus for further research in this research area.