Effect of environmental and process variables on DSS implementation success: evidence from an experimental investigation for the moving stage of change (Lewin-Schein model)

The authors explored experimentally the effect of three environmental variables and one process variable on the acceptance of or resistance to moving from the existing semiautomated batch system to the proposed interactive financial decision-support system (DSS), Budget-Aid. The three environmental variables are time allowed, project champion support, and change reversibility. The process variable is the level of familiarity with current system. The two dependent variables, predicted success and predicted support, are based on perceived judgments of the participants (who are practitioners attending evening MBA classes), given the hypothetical implementation scenarios for Budget-Aid where the four variables were examined. The research participants were classified according to type of management responsibility, age group, education level, familiarity with computers, familiarity with DSS, and prior change exposure. Most experimental and classification factors had statistically significant relationships with predicted success and predicted support.