Hybrid Systems and Adaptive Foraging Multi-Agent Approaches Towards Strategic Marketing Decision-Making

In view of Herbert Simon’s bounded rationality of the human mind in solving complex problems, efforts have been devoted to identify managers’ needs for computerised support for strategic marketing planning. In 1997 and 1998, we undertook a large scale questionnaire survey to explore managers’ needs for computer-based support for marketing strategy formulation, existing provision of computerized support, and the gaps between the actual needs and the provision. The questionnaire sampling frame consisted of manufacturing companies geographically located in the UK. A total of 900 companies with more than 500 employees were randomly selected from the FAME (Financial Analysis Made Easy) CD-ROM databases. 104 responses were received after follow-ups. This was the first comprehensive study in the world to investigate relevant key issues. Our study extends the findings to the UK manufacturing companies and clarifies who needs computer-based support. The mail survey also reveals that, in many companies, two or more directors share the responsibility. The survey findings suggest that both analysis and intuition are important. It is also confirmed that coping with uncertainty and ambiguity is an issue. Managers’ needs for computerised support in the digital age are clarified. This study extends the literature by focusing on using systems for marketing strategy development in UK manufacturing companies and investigates wider range of support systems and tools including databases, spreadsheets, marketing information systems, executive information systems, decision support systems, expert systems, and others. It was the first attempt to explore the level of managerial satisfaction with the systems used for marketing strategy development and the factors leading to dissatisfaction. The findings extend the literature by discovering such factors as limited support capabilities, inability to couple analysis with managerial judgement, inability in dealing with uncertainty, etc. It was also the first study to explore the factors holding companies back from using computer-based support for marketing strategy development by identifying such factors as lack of appropriate systems, lack of required data and information to run relevant systems, lack of knowledge and skills in systems, etc. The findings from this study provide a solid foundation for designing, developing and applying computer-based support systems for the process of strategic marketing planning.