DSS utilization: A comparative study for major firms in Germany and the USA: An examination of the Implementation Paradox

Abstract Although there is general agreement that the management demands of the Singerian milieu require decision support systems (DSS) to efficient by and effectively employ the organization’s scare resources, some suggest that there has been a paradoxical DSS utilization gap. We collected information from a sample of the Fortune 500 and of the top 150 organizations in Germany to exam-ine: (1) the extent of DSS components utilization in the U.S. and Germany, (2) decision maker rat-ings of their DSS, (3) differences between the two countries, and (4) overall DSS utilization. We found, contrary to the implementation paradox, extensive implementation of the major DSS compo-nents and further that they are highly valued. We found SAP more highly utilized in Germany that may explain some DSS utilization differences between Germany and the U.S. Key words: Decision Support Systems, DSS Implementation Paradox, Survey Results. Introduction As Bhatt and Zaveri (2002) demonstrate, the world of organizational decision-making has certainly changed in character since the introduction of the Internet. Designing the EDT linkages to realize the expert systems, knowledge management and AI potential of the B2C, B2B, B2P, and B2E, channels is one of the management challenges of the Internet age. Managing in this dynamic context requires organizations to develop the IS protocols that convert the relatively constant flow of data from the Internet, ExtraNets, and IntraNets into cogent planning and control information. While it is unarguable that the Internet has changed the character of the decision-making process, the decision imperatives have not changed. The fundamentals still govern: create an organizational trajectory that improves profitability; manages market share; and additionally, for public compa-nies, improves the market value of the firm, insures that EPS beats street projections, and improves Balanced Scorecard performance. As Setzekorn et al. (2002) note: Decision making support systems are especially strategic in today’s complex business en-vironment where heightened global competition pushes firms to diversify their product offerings into product markets with which they have little experience, and at the same time, to compete on cost, quality, reliability and responsiveness dimensions. Managing the complexity inherent in op-timizing multiple product lines on multiple performance dimensions across multiple organizations in the supply chain has heightened the need for competence and timeliness in decision-making. Setzekorn et al. continue that despite the obvious need, and the availability of DSS compo-nent development, there has been a lack of implementation. They refer to this as an “implementation gap,” and suggest that the lack of DSS adoption is due to difficulties in implementation. Indeed, when one considers the formidable implementation issues of developing the needed management interfaces and constant legacy pressure experienced by organizations which now exist in, as Court-ney (2001) notes, a Singerian world, it may be the case that trying to create and manage relevant DSS interfaces creates the following paradoxical situation: DSS are needed in the dynamic e-world, but given the pressure of working in this environment without adequate DSS, there is rarely time to de-velop such DSS. This dilemma was first suggested by Chi and Turban (1995) almost ten years ago, and the recent evidence also suggests that for many organizations the challenges and costs of design, implementation and management of DSS remain impediments to their wide spread utilization. See also Guimaraes et al. (1992), Santhanam et al. (2000), and Wheeler and Jones (2003).