Convincing DSS users that complex models are worth the effort Tim Chenoweth, Karen L. Dowling * , Robert D. St. Louis College of Business, School of Accountancy and Information Management, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287-3606, USA Received 1 November 2002; accepted 1 December 2002 Abstract Many management science/operations research (MS/OR) models have been developed to improve decision making. Too often, these models are underutilized. Users generally favor less effortful strategies. The challenge then is to increase the users’ willingness to expend effort. We perform a study using cognitive feedforward and feedback to increase awareness of the improved accuracy to be obtained from complex models. Models of increasing complexity are presented to subjects with feedback regarding their accuracy. Participants overwhelmingly indicated an intention to use the most complex model. The implication for decision support system (DSS) designers is that users will expend more effort if the potential accuracy gains are made more salient. D 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Keywords: Cognitive feedforward and feedback information; Complex models; Effort vs. accuracy framework; Decision support systems 1. Introduction As organizations and the world in which they operate have become more complex, the decisions that must be made have become more complex. Decision support systems (DSSs) are computer-based systems designed to support decision makers [11] and usually include a database and a model base. Manage- ment science/operations research (MS/OR) has devel- oped many models that could be useful in supporting decision makers. Similar to the decisions that confront managers, these models are often complex. DSSs that incorporate complex models have been ‘‘underutil- ized’’ [23]. The reluctance to use complex MS/OR models has gone so far that some authors have said that ‘‘decision support systems are used only for queries’’ (Ref. [1], p. 28). Use of a complex model requires the adoption of a new decision strategy (i.e., the complex model rather than the old, simple model). Unlike the adoption of a technology such as word processing [9], the user must accept both a new technology (the DSS) and a new decision strategy (the complex model). We argue that it is necessary for DSS designers to address both the technology adoption and the strategy change to suc- cessfully achieve system use. Generally, users favor less effortful strategies, even when the DSS makes all strategies easier to use. The effort vs. accuracy trade-off in decision making has been shown repeatedly to favor less effort [5,17,27]. A proposed explanation for this phenomenon is that decision makers are able to effectively evaluate only 0167-9236/$ - see front matter D 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/S0167-9236(03)00005-8 * Corresponding author. Tel.: +1-480-965-8048. E-mail address: Karen.Dowling@asu.edu (K.L. Dowling). www.elsevier.com/locate/dsw Decision Support Systems 37 (2004) 71 – 82