The Founding of INFORMS: A Decision Analysis Perspective

We provide a decision analysis perspective on the decision making process leading to the merger of The Institute of Management Sciences (TIMS) and the Operations Research Society of America (ORSA) to form the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS). Throughout the merger negotiation era from 1989 until the merger in 1995, discussion regarding a possible merger was framed in an objectives-oriented manner characteristic of decision analysis methods. In addition, as ORSA and TIMS officers, we applied multiobjective decision analysis and financial analysis methods in portions of the planning and negotiation process leading to the formation of INFORMS. The merger process serves as an instructive case study of the uses and limitations of formal decision analysis methods in strategy formulation and implementation.