Decision support systems for strategic management

Management theory and management practice are often accused of not belonging together. Likewise decision support systems (DSSs) appear to have failed in providing support for managerial decision-making. Some of the problems seem to come from the fact that academics and managers are ambitious people, successful in their own field, discussing the same issues, but speaking a different language, thus not understanding each other. It does not have to be like this. Here we will describe how we discovered the differences between theory and practice when developing a DSS to support strategic decision—making in a drug company. It is possible to represent the key elements and their relationships of strategic management in a DSS so that they will make sense to the decision-maker. It is, however, the kind of work where we have to rush slowly if we wish to achieve good results. © 1994 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.