Abstract

Decision support systems (DSS) have evolved significantly since the past 40 years. This evolution is fueled by its expansion from vantage directions. However, this flexibility in growth is disturbing with shifting trajectory. This dichotomy of expansion versus falling apart has a consequence of lack of coherence of the field. Thus, reconceptualization of this field in current juncture is wanting and this serves as the primal motivation behind this study. Consequently, the objective is to synthesize the conceptual elements which constitute the DSS literature. The use of text mining techniques to automate the review process is unique in this study. This approach addresses the subjective interpretation adopted by other alternate literature review methods. The word frequency distribution and topic mining lead to unveiling of three broad themes of discussion viz. foundational, methodological and application(s). The derived themes have been mapped with earlier propositions from various scholars of the filed to provide unanimity. Findings suggest that the propositions in the earlier decade of developments are not only relevant today but also dominate the literature. In continuation, we plan to ex-tend our research to perform a decade-wise analysis of DSS publications for the last 40 years.

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