GROUP DECISION-SUPPORT SYSTEMS - CLARIFYING THE CONCEPT AND ESTABLISHING A FUNCTIONAL TAXONOMY

Research in Group Decision Support Systems (GDSS) has intensified in r ecent years. However, there is evidence of fragmented research and con siderable lack of clarity regarding this concept. A functional taxonom y is proposed based on two dimensions, content support and process sup port, which give rise to sixteen possible GDSS types. The validity of the taxonomy is then demonstrated by fitting a large number of impleme nted or proposed systems in GDSS research onto one of the 16 types. Th is should lead to greater precision in systems categorization and enha nce the usefulness of GDSS research by reducing ambiguity in the attri bution of research results.