Strategic scanning and interpretation revisiting: foundations for a software agent support system ‐ Part 2: scanning the business environment with software agents
| Pages | 362-372 |
| Published date | 01 December 1998 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/02635579810246480 |
| Date | 01 December 1998 |
| Author | Shuhua Liu |
| Subject Matter | Economics,Information & knowledge management,Management science & operations |
[ 362 ]
Industrial Management &
Data Systems
98/8 [1998] 362–372
© MCB University Press
[ISSN 0263-5577]
Strategic scanning and interpretation revisiting:
foundations for a software agent support system –
Part 2: scanning the business environment with
software agents
Shuhua Liu
Åbo Akademi University, DataCity, Turku, Finland
Executive information sys-
tems, or strategic manage-
ment support systems for
senior managers, have tradi-
tionally addressed how to
satisfy some predefined infor-
mation needs of managers and
how to help them in analyzing
or solving predefined prob-
lems. They are usually not
flexible enough to capture
messages and signals from
the business world that indi-
cate impending opportunities
or problems. In this paper we
introduce a software agent
approach into scanning sup-
port systems. We made a
review of software agent
fundamentals to understand
what an agent is; what it can
do and cannot do; what are
the components of an agent;
and how an agent can be
constructed. We then exam-
ined its relevance in offering
active scanning support to
managers. An agent-based
support system is proposed.
Useful software agents needed
to constitute the system are
identified. Tasks of the agent
components are analyzed.
I would like to thank
Professor Christer Carlsson
for guiding me into the field
of strategic management
and software agents, and for
his support to this research.
I would also like to thank
Professor Christer Carlsson
and Professor Tapio Repo-
nen for their valuable com-
ments on the earlier version
of this paper, and thank
Christopher Grapes for
checking the language.
Introduction
The scanning and interpretation of a busi-
ness environment has been a critical compo-
nent of any strategy formulation process,
formally or informally. Traditionally the
managerial searching for information has
often been characterized by intuitive and
fragmented activities. As the business envi-
ronment increases in its scope, dynamics and
complexity, the task of grasping its changes
becomes increasingly demanding and the
increased availability of data threatens to
exceed the human capacity to cope with and
assimilate them. In this research we recog-
nized managers’ need for a powerful support
tool that would be able to contribute to a more
systematic, intensive while extensive and
faster scanning process than the human
process alone. We set out to seek a good solu-
tion. Considering the limitations of previous
support technologies, we try to adopt an alter-
native approach – the software agent
approach – to build up the support system for
strategic scanning and interpretation.
Central to the notion of an agent is its
autonomous and goal-directed behavior. How-
ever, automata are not new concepts. Intelli-
gent machines have existed in fact or fiction
for centuries. The interest in having an agent
to do certain tasks for people has always been
there, and it is in fact regarded as the pri-
mary driving force of the agent domain (Min-
sky, 1994; Norman, 1994). The reason why this
field is revitalized today is to a large extent
attributed to the development of information
technology and the increase in computational
power. In one respect, applications thought to
be impossible to automate in the past are
rapidly becoming a possibility; in another
respect, present-day widespread computer
systems create new, extra tasks for people.
Computers can do more to help people to
exploit most from the computerized systems,
and they are also expected to do so because
people need help to deal with the ever-
increasing information overload and work
overload.
Agents occupy a strange place in the realm of
technology – generating fear, fiction, and extra-
vagant claims (Norman, 1994): “Agents may
well have numerous positive contributions to
our lives. They can simplify our use of comput-
ers, allowing us to move away from the com-
plexity of common languages or the tedium of
direct manipulation toward intelligent, agent-
guided interaction”; “Agents promise to hide
complexity, to perform actions we could not or
would prefer not do ourselves”. However, agent
technology is not problem-free: “...along with
the potential comes potential danger. ... Along
with their benefits and capabilities comes the
potential for social mischief, for systems that
run amok, for a loss of privacy, and for further
alienation of society from technology through
increasing loss of the sense of control” (Nor-
man, 1994). Agents (can) make people diminish
themselves and start to think of themselves as
being like the computer, as a consequence of
unavoidable psychological algebra:
They (will) start to limit themselves to the
categories and procedures represented in
the computer, without realizing what has
been lost (Lanier, 1996).
The fact is that agent technology and applica-
tions are still in the early stage of develop-
ment. Much remains to be explained. Signifi-
cant interest in agent research and develop-
ment has mushroomed and can be found
scattered across different fora such as AI and
mainstream computer science, robotics, soft-
ware development, information mining in
general and in network environment, and
many others (Riecken, 1994a, 1994b;
Wooldridge and Jennings, 1995). In manage-
ment studies, the agent concept has been
utilized in designing agent-oriented organiza-
tions. Real-world applications are still mainly
under development. However, it seems clear
that the development of agent software is
coming anyway because of the great help and
benefits it can offer and because of demand
from industries. When we try to use it, we
have a chance to bear in mind the questions
and potential problems and to find out the
answers and solutions in our practice.
Presented in two parts, this paper serves to
build up the foundations of a software agent-
based support system for strategic scanning
and interpretation. In Part 1 (appeared in the
preceding issue of IMDS), we have given a
detailed review and examination of the con-
cept and context of strategic scanning and
interpretation. It helps us to understand the
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