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

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.