ABSTRACT: The usefulness of strategic decision support systems (SDSSs) has been a highly discussed, yet under-investigated issue. This paper attempts to help fill the gap between available subjective/argumentative theory and the necessary empirical evidence to evaluate and implement existing claims and design methodologies. An empirical study is described that explicitly focused on the usefulness of information in a strategic decision-making context. Factor analysis was employed in the derivation of five orthogonal dimensions of the usefulness of strategic information. The results suggest that strategic systems planning [20] may be preferable to historical, traditional approaches to providing useful information to strategic decision makers in a SDSS context. A research agenda is discussed that suggests avenues for studying strategic systems planning in the context of various planning processes contributing to SDSS development, of knowledge-based SDSSs, and of strategic expert systems.
Key words and phrases: strategic information, strategic systems planning