Decision support systems research: current state and trends

This study investigates the changing intellectual structure of the decision support system (DSS) field by means of an empirical assessment of the DSS literature over two successive time periods, 1971-1990 and 1991-1995. A multivariate data analysis tool, cluster analysis, is applied to an author cocitation frequency matrix derived from a large database file of comprehensive DSS literature over the two consecutive periods. The study concludes that the core areas of DSS research have shifted to group decision support systems, model management, and design and implementation, while the study of foundations and individual differences has faded away. Moreover, DSS researchers have diversified their reference disciplines in an effort to improve their research. Influence of organization science has been diminished, while cognitive science and psychology have emerged as the most influential contributing disciplines.