NAME: ALCEBAR, JENNA KYERA F.

QUESTION: What contributions does the paper make to the advancement of knowledge, theory and
practice, or a potential for future research?

A Decision Support System is an information system that supports businesses or organizational

decision-making activities. DSSs serve the management, operations, and planning levels of an
organization and help people make decisions about problems that may be rapidly changing and not
easily specified in advance - i.e. unstructured and semi-structured decision problems. Decision
support systems can either be fully computerized or human-powered, or a combination of both.

The paper tackles the proposition of a two dimensional framework for Decision Support Systems
cost-benefit analysis (pricing and valuation of DSS where the necessary condition is where its value
exceeds the price). The first dimension shows the degree to which the supported decision is
structured, the level of managerial activitiy, level of uncertainty, and source of information is used.
The second dimension classifies DSS based on the phase of the aided decision that follows Simon’s
decision making model (Pieptea and Anderson, 2019).

Hennen, et al., Lembersky, and Chi, and Boykin prefer the traditional cost-benefit analysis as a
method for justification of DSS projects. This is used when a project requires intelligence. This
includes the identification of problems and conditions that call for decision. DSS in this stage serves
the organization through the provision of integrated and well-analyzed, and formatted data. DSS
applications that create trend report, exception reports, and ad-hoc inquiries belong to this category.
(Pieptea and Anderson, 2019) On the other hand, some authors, such as Keen, favour alternatives
such as value-based techniques. Still others such as McLean and Riesing strongly assert that DSS are
discretionary in character and have no justification or right to exist beyond the user’s desire to use
them.

The paper has made the following contributions to the advancement of knowledge, theory and
practice, or a potential for future research:

Since little attention and study is allocated for the relationship between pricing and valuation of
DSSs, this paper bridged the gap by determining the factors that make DSS stand out against MIS. This
paper also offers a unitary structure of reference where opposing views are reconciled by showing
that DSS valuation is contextual by nature - this implies that any value-cost analysis for DSS should
take into consideration the type of particular system to be analyzed. Finally, and as previously
mentioned, the paper has identified a potential value-price gap that is shown to be conditioned by
the subjectivity in the perception of value. It places the value-cost analysis of DSS into proper
perspective. Furthermore, the paper provides a framework that can be used by researchers and
practitioners as a means of communication. (Pieptea and Anderson, 2019) The perspective and ways
of theorists and practitioners can now take a shift for the better using this paper, since a gap in the
bridge has been filled. Researchers who wish to conduct similar studies can supercede the results
provided by using the paper as a stepping stone for furthering progress regarding this topic - since
there is still little literature in the large available for such studies.