Visualising Strategies: The impact of user interpretation of a strategic decision support system

Kunc, Martin (2014) Visualising Strategies: The impact of user interpretation of a strategic decision support system. In 32nd International Conference of the System Dynamics Society, Delft, Netherlands.

Record type: Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)

Abstract

On the one hand, simulation models have been employed to support managers
to understand the complexity in their businesses. On the other hand, there are
different simulation models and different user interfaces to support managers'
decision making processes. The use of simulation models will have different
impact on managerial effectiveness to understand the information provided by
the performance measurement system and manage their businesses. In this
paper, we explore the interpretation of users of a strategic decision support
system based on the concepts of dynamic resource-based view/strategy maps
and its impact on the strategic decision making process. Our aim is to identify
what is the impact of the interpretation assigned to the decision support system
on the decisions made. The research has been conducted with 30 product
managers from the pharmaceutical industry exploring similar decision support
system. The results indicate that sense making is a key factor affecting the
usefulness of decision support systems and impacting the decision making
process.