Group exploration of system dynamics models—is there a place for a feedback loop in the decision process?

This article addresses the influence of feedback information on the group decision process supported by the application of system dynamics models. An experimental system enabling the active cooperation of decision subjects was developed, and this is user friendly as far as the visualization and transparency of the simulation results are concerned. A model of the business system was applied to the experiment with decision groups. The experiment considered the task of strategy determination with an explicitly defined multicriteria function, which was defined in such a way as to increase the level of experimental control. The experiment was conducted under two experimental conditions: determination of the strategy with the application of a system dynamics model without group interaction; and determination of the strategy with the application of a formal model with subject interaction supported by group feedback information. The subjects were senior university students, of whom 95 participated in the experiment. The hypothesis that the model application and group feedback information positively influence convergence of the decision process and contribute to higher criteria function values was confirmed.