Institutional life of intuitive insights: Legitimacy of virtuoso intuitive marketing management

Intuitive insights have been recognized as an integral part of marketing and managerial proficiency. In this article, we expand upon this understanding by theorizing the institutional dimension of intuitive expertise. By developing a theoretical framework with supportive propositions we maintain that for intuitive managerial expertise to be effective it requires legitimization in its inter-organizational contexts. Intuitive insights hence have a significant institutional and social existence, irreducible to cognition. This means that institutional logic may support or contradict efficient cognitive strategies, significantly influencing the performance of marketing management. Managerial implications follow to the fields of marketing management and intuitive decision-making.