Towards Support for Strategic Decision Processes Using Enterprise Models: A Critical Reconstruction of Strategy Analysis
Strategic decision processes are traditionally thought to affect an organization’s long-term success, motivating the development of strategy analysis tools. But ordinary strategy analysis tools have been criticized on several grounds, such as the neglect
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Research Group Information Systems and Enterprise Modeling, University of Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany {alexander.bock,ulrich.frank}@uni-due.de Enterprise Modelling Research Group, University of Hagen, Hagen, Germany {arne.bergmann,stefan.strecker}@fernuni-hagen.de
Abstract. Strategic decision processes are traditionally thought to affect an organization’s long-term success, motivating the development of strategy analysis tools. But ordinary strategy analysis tools have been criticized on several grounds, such as the neglect of organizational context and ill-defined concepts. This paper explores whether enterprise models can provide a richer foundation for strategic analysis, intending to lay the ground for the development of a modeling language. Specifically, the paper analyzes key concepts of traditional strategy analysis tools, reconstructs these concepts in the form of a meta model, and demonstrates integration potentials with enterprise models. The paper closes with implications and lessons learned for future research.
· Domain-specific modeling Keywords: Enterprise modeling languages · Strategic decision processes · Strategy analysis tools
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Introduction
It is traditionally thought that “to forecast and provide means examining the future and drawing up the plan of action” is a prime responsibility of the manager [1, p. 5]. With the publication of Ansoff’s Corporate Strategy [2] and Andrews’ The Concept of Corporate Strategy [3], related processes have come to be placed predominantly under the heading of strategic planning and strategic decision processes. In the light of an on-going digital transformation, these processes seem more relevant than ever. New, sometimes disruptive technologies may emerge at any time, rapidly replacing established products. But while environmental contingencies motivate strategic planning, they also represent its key challenge. In the face of an uncertain future, the meaningfulness of detailed planning at a top level has long been questioned—to the extent that the ‘Fall of Strategic Planning’ has been posited two decades ago [4]. c IFIP International Federation for Information Processing 2016 Published by Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016. All Rights Reserved J. Horkoff et al. (Eds.): PoEM 2016, LNBIP 267, pp. 41–56, 2016. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-48393-1 4
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The complexity, contingency, and ambivalence of strategic problems motivate the use of approaches that facilitate the systematic analysis of a company’s situation and the construction and assessment of strategic courses of action—without imposing too rigid constraints on future actions. Starting from this assumption, a variety of strategy analysis tools have been devised in the past decades. Examples include the Balanced Scorecard [5], the Five Forces framework [6], and Portfolio Analysis. However, while remaining popular, these tools exhibit remarkable shortcomings. For instance, important organizational context is neglected. This comes at a price of increased difficulty when interpreti
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