A GDSS for ranking a firm's core capability strategies

Strategic management is a key activity for organizations' ability to sustain competitive advantages in the long-term. It is crucial for enterprises to optimize their strategies in order to build unique competencies. However, the complex and uncertain environment of modern organizations create difficulties in the evaluation of relevant factors while formulating strategies. In addition, most firms lack cognition and consensus in developing their core capabilities which are vital to attaining competitive advantage. Hence, it is necessary to find more efficient ways by leveraging information technology. Specifically, these problems can be solved by implementing IT-based group decision support systems (GDSS), which are rarely explored. Therefore, the study develops a group decision support system in which the cluster analysis, genetic algorithms, and Analytic Hierarchy Process are used to help managers make key decisions. The system provides a flexible and user-friendly environment to help top management and other relevant staff to evaluate all relevant factors in formulating development policies for core capabilities. Furthermore, in the case study of the GDSS, the participating managers view it as a useful and user-friendly approach to facilitate this task.