What is Practice-Driven Research

The need to improve decision making is a longstanding concern in decision support research. As the accelerated technological development and fierce competition coming from global sources are becoming more apparent in the new 21st century, enhanced decision-making capabilities are required more than ever before to enable organisations to meet the new challenges. Decision making can be viewed as a dynamic and iterative process comprising: (1) identification phase, which involves decision problem recognition and diagnosis activities; (2) development phase, which concerns search and design activities; and (3) selection phase, which comprises screening, evaluation, and authorisation activities (Mintzberg et al., 1976). The quality of the subsequent decisions will depend on the nature of the preceding diagnostic, design, and selection activities.