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Group exploration of system dynamics models—is there a place for a feedback loop in the decision process?
Author(s) -
Škraba Andrej,
Kljajić Miroljub,
Leskovar Robert
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
system dynamics review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.491
H-Index - 57
eISSN - 1099-1727
pISSN - 0883-7066
DOI - 10.1002/sdr.274
Subject(s) - process (computing) , computer science , transparency (behavior) , system dynamics , group (periodic table) , visualization , function (biology) , task (project management) , dynamics (music) , simulation , operations research , artificial intelligence , mathematics , engineering , psychology , systems engineering , pedagogy , chemistry , computer security , organic chemistry , evolutionary biology , biology , operating system
This article addresses the inuence of feedback information on the group decision process supported by the application of system dynamics models. An experimental system enabling the active cooperation of decision subjects was developed, and this is user friendly as far as the visualization and transparency of the simulation results are concerned. A model of the business system was applied to the experiment with decision groups. The experiment considered the task of strategy determination with an explicitly dened multicriteria function, which was dened in such a way as to increase the level of experimental control. The experiment was conducted under two experimental conditions: determination of the strategy with the application of a system dynamics model without group interaction; and determination of the strategy with the application of a formal model with subject interaction supported by group feedback information. The subjects were senior university students, of whom 95 participated in the experiment. The hypothesis that the model application and group feedback information positively inuence convergence of the decision process and contribute to higher criteria function values was conrmed. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.