The effective use of a decision support tool in the area of strategic marketing management

Abstract

Management at a strategic level involves a high level of risk and uncertainty. These problems are compounded further in the area of marketing due to the fact that firms often face turbulent and unpredictable markets. Expert systems and decision support systems might have a 1arge impact in this area but the development of such systems has proven difficult with less than expected results. This paper provides a description of an effective decision support tool embedded within a hybrid expert/decision support system. This tool is derived from a modified version of an existing operational research technique and is used to introduce structure and objectivity into a largely subjective process of attaching values to a set of decision criteria.