In the right circumstances, well functioning markets can be superior to small party transactions (e.g. individual opinion or 'gut-feel'), for accurately assessing the right price, value, or priority.of anything that people are concerned with (see 'Reinventing the Bazaar').

Market-based mechanisms can be effectively used to support decision making in cases where there is large amount of ambiguity and uncertainty. This is typical of the 'front-end' of the innovation process where new, creative, different and often disruptive ideas are being considered.

A market-based decision mechanism has the following attributes: