Model-Based Simulation Architecture

The application of computers to business administration has ranged from startling successes to appalling failures. The latter class includes the application of Management Information Systems (MIS) to support high level management decisions in an organization (Dearden 1972). The inadequacy of the MIS approach has been largely attributed to its philosophy of “management by computer,” which tends to exclude the manager from the decision process. The Decision Support Systems (DSS) approach differs from that of MIS in the change of philosophy from “management by computer” to “computer-aided management,” i.e., to provide computer aid for a manager to achieve appropriate decisions more effectively (Keen and Morton 1978, Sprague and Carlson 1982).