A Critical Review of Decision Support Systems Foundational Articles

Abstract Decision Support Systems (DSS) is a mature field of study with an extensive conceptual and empirical literature. This research study provides a starting point for learning and reviewing the foundation literature of the field. Decision support and analytics researchers can benefit from revisiting the methodologies, identifying under-explored ideas, and hopefully identifying visionary concepts from thought leaders who established the DSS research stream. This article reports a systematic examination of the DSS foundational literature published in MIS Quarterly during its first fifteen years of publication -- 1977-1991. In addition to examining the relevance of these articles to current and future research, the findings of the study provide a reference point of DSS research categories. Articles were categorized in terms of theory, methods, concepts and perspectives about computerized decision support that enrich research and encourage future exploration

Toward a Maturity Model for DSS Development Processes

Despite recent progress with Decision support systems (DSS) development methodologies, a gap still exist in terms of theability to assess the maturity of an organization with respect to its DSS development process. A need exist to be able todescribe DSS development processes at a meta-level. Equally important is the ability to provide organization withprescriptions to increase the maturity of their DSS development processes.In this paper, we propose a Decision Support System Maturity Model (DSS-MM). The model draws on extant literaturerelated to DSS development methodologies, practices and processes to identify pertinent DSS development practices anddefine maturity models for these practices. From a theoretical perspective, this research presents the first maturity modelspecifically targeting DSS development. From a practical perspective, the model provides a framework for organizations toassess their DSS development maturity level and devise process improvement initiatives to address any limitations withexisting practices

Review of management information systems research: A management support emphasis

This article organizes, describes, and evaluates MIS research from 1981 through 1985 in order to provide an understanding of what constitutes MIS research and to indicate potentially rich areas for future research. The review emphasizes information systems research in support of management decision making as opposed, for example, to research into the management of information resources or the development of strategic information systems.Preliminary work includes developing a definition of MIS, adopting an organizing framework, and choosing journals for review. Once this foundation is laid, MIS research content and methodology up to 1980 are summarized based upon the findings of the First International Conference on Information Systems. Finally, MIS research from 1981 to 1985 is described and evaluated in terms of content and methodology.It was found that more progress has been made in identifying appropriate research questions than in answering those questions. Significant progress in generating answers may be made in the future due to a healthy shift in the choice of methodologies (shift from more speculative-conceptual to more theory-based/theory-generating empirical). However, progress toward developing a global notion (theory) of MIS seems relatively slow. This lack of progress seems to be a symptom of: - Lack of progress in defining the product of MIS (information). - Too much research focus upon what relationships exist instead of focusing upon why relationships exist. - Underlying problems in the natural sciences paradigm currently associated with MIS research.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/27465/1/0000506.pd

Small Businesses Encounters with Information Technology

This dissertation advances the concept of IT encountering, defined as the process whereby individuals pay attention, interpret and respond to cues suggesting changes to IT, in ways that appear sensible to them, and it studies IT encountering in the context of small businesses. I review the literatures on organizational IT adoption and IT selection, and conclude that these literatures have relied on assumptions which leave unattended important aspects of the process leading to choice: the adoption literature presupposes the saliency and significance of a focal technology to a decision maker, and the IT selection literature generally assumes that suitable IT alternatives are known to the individual making choices. The reliance on these assumptions has resulted in blind spots, which have in turn led to deficiencies in our conceptualizations. I discuss these blind spots, some historical and methodological reasons behind them, and their theoretical implications (i.e., the perpetuation of the pro-innovation bias, the absence of search from our theories, and the unexplained gaps between competing explanations of IT choice). The IT encountering perspective draws primarily on the behavioural, sensemaking, and mindfulness research traditions. Those foundations inform the empirical study, which was based on a longitudinal qualitative design, and included event-driven interviews with small business owners. The findings of the study uncover crucial aspects of the cognitive work and behavioural responses carried out by business owners during IT encounters. These aspects are composed together into a process model. My findings are consistent with previous work in noting a considerable time lag between awareness and adoption of IT innovations among small businesses, and in highlighting the crucial role of knowledge therein. The findings also differ from prior research on this topic, especially by considering a much wider range of responses and outcomes lying in between adoption and rejection of IT (e.g., tinkering, experimentation, downscaling), and by taking into account the dialectics and temporal limits of effected IT change. This alternative perspective opens up research avenues beyond the context of study, and can also guide research efforts more attuned to the views and needs of such fundamental socioeconomic actors as small businesses

The influence of organizational and information systems factors on the effectiveness of post-merger technology integration

This dissertation explores how ten specific organizational and information systems factors influence post-merger IS integration success, and the role that degree of IS integration plays in moderating the influence these factors may have on IS integration success. Data were gathered, using a self-administered survey instrument, from senior IS executives at firms that experienced a U.S. public merger greater than $25 million between 2004 and 2007. Support is found for the study\u27s Conceptual Model, indicating that all ten factors in unison influence post-merger IS integration success. The data support the hypotheses that quality of merger planning, quality of communication of merger activities to IS, quality of IS integration planning, degree of end-user involvement in IS integration activities, and quality of technical support to users during the IS integration each have a significant influence on post-merger IS integration success. The data also support the moderating effect of degree of IS integration on the relationship between post-merger IS integration success and executive (non-IS) management support. In a supplemental path model analysis, a complex relationship is hypothesized to exist between the factors and IS Capability and IS Performance, the two IS integration success measures, As a result, four of the five remaining hypotheses are indirectly supported. This research expands the body of knowledge that identifies sources of IS integration performance, thus helping to explain sources of overall merger performance

An object-oriented approach to structuring multicriteria decision support in natural resource management problems

Includes bibliographical references.The undertaking of MCDM (Multicriteria Decision Making) and the development of DSSs (Decision Support Systems) tend to be complex and inefficient, leading to low productivity in decision analysis and DSSs. Towards this end, this study has developed an approach based on object orientation for MCDM and DSS modelling, with the emphasis on natural resource management. The object-oriented approach provides a philosophy to model decision analysis and DSSs in a uniform way, as shown by the diagrams presented in this study. The solving of natural resource management decision problems, the MCDM decision making procedure and decision making activities are modelled in an object-oriented way. The macro decision analysis system, its DSS, the decision problem, the decision context, and the entities in the decision making procedure are represented as "objects". The object-oriented representation of decision analysis also constitutes the basis for the analysis ofDSSs